Sheikh Rashid insists PM Imran will visit Hazara mourners

Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed insisted on Friday that Prime Minister Imran Khan will visit Quetta, adding that Hazara mourners must carry out funeral rites of the Machh incident victims.

While addressing a press conference, Sheikh Rashid said that the reason the premier was waiting for the burials was so that he could sit down with the community and speak to them in detail.

The minister said that the premier supports the Hazara community completely and if the funeral rites are completed by today then the premier will visit the community today.

He further added that because of the recent onslaught of terrorist activities he has asked the Frontier Corps (FC) to conduct a thorough investigation and patrolling of the region.

Responding to a question from a media person, the interior minister acknowledged that Pakistan was facing a new wave of terrorism. "There are security threats coming in for Peshawar, Lahore, Karachi and Quetta," he said.

“The provinces are on high alert and there is a terrorist threat coming from neighboring countries,” Rashid maintained.

He also said that security officials have nabbed terrorists from Sargodha, Islamabad and Karachi.

Asked about the remarks made by the opposition leaders during their visit to the Quetta sit-in, Rashid said that some individuals were trying to turn this tragic incident into a political issue.

He added that the speeches made by Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice-President Maryam Nawaz were strictly political.

The interior minister revealed that he has requested the prime minister to help the victims’ families with financial aid.

The premier announced on Friday that he will not be blackmailed into coming to Quetta and would visit the mourners, including women and children, sitting along with bodies of 11 labourers in extreme weather conditions near the Western Bypass area close to Hazara Town, only when they bury the dead.

The prime minister was of the view that linking the burial with his prior visit made no sense, adding that no one blackmails a sitting prime minister like this anywhere in the world.

“If this condition is accepted then everyone will blackmail the prime minister,” the premier said, adding that a gang of robbers – the opposition parties – is also trying to blackmail him for the last two-and-a-half years.

“If you bury the dead today, I assure you that I will visit Quetta today,” PM Imran announced while speaking as a chief guest at the launching ceremony of Special Technology Zones Authority in Islamabad.