About 20 people were on board a bus when unidentified gunmen appeared on a motorcycle and opened fire at the vehicle enroute to Hazara Ganji.
Conflicting media reports stated that the passengers were lined up and subsequently shot by the assailants.
Express 24/7 correspondent Mohammad Kazim reported that the passengers were on their way to the fruit and vegetable market when the assailants opened fire.
"The bus was carrying people mostly from the Hazara community who were returning from Quetta," senior police Hamid Shakeel told Reuters.
"Four gunmen riding two motorcycles opened fire on a bus in the outskirts of Quetta," local police official Hamid Shakeel told AFP.
"The death toll has risen to 14. Two of the injured who were in critical condition died in hospital. Now 13 Shiite Muslims and one Pashtun have been killed in the attack," he said after initially putting the death toll at 10.
Meanwhile, police have cordoned off the area and initial investigations of the incident is underway.
Sectarian violence is on the rise in Quetta as 26 Shia pilgrims were killed in a firing incident last month in Mastung, about 30 kilometres southeast of Quetta, when a group of armed men attacked a passenger bus carrying Shia pilgrims from Quetta to Iran.
(Read: Sectarian atrocity - 29 killed in Mastung, Quetta ambushes)
The Mastung attack was claimed by banned militant outfit Laskar-e-Jhangvi.
Protesting violence
Up to 400 furious Hazaras demonstrated outside the Bolan Medical Complex where the wounded were taken for treatment, condemning the government for inaction over sectarian groups, said police official Wahid Bakhsh.
Angry protesters also reportedly set ablaze the bus that was attacked by the assailants.
"These are not random killings but demonstrate the deliberate targeting of the Shia by armed groups," said Amnesty's Asia-Pacific director Sam Zarifi.
"These attacks prove that without an urgent and comprehensive government response, no place is safe for the Shia," Zarifi added.
(Read: How not to cede space to extremists)
The rights group said it had recorded details of at least 15 attacks specifically targeting Shiites across Pakistan.
"Continued failure to address sectarian violence will only exacerbate the general breakdown in law and order in Pakistan," it said.
Pakistan's own independent rights watchdog said the killers had been emboldened by a persistent lack of action against sectarian militant groups, which have been implicated in thousands of deaths in past years.
Tuesday's attack "exposes once again the diminishing writ of the state", warned the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).
(Read: Sectarian violence - Strike observed in parts of Quetta)
Balochistan is also rife with militancy and a regional insurgency waged by separatists who rose up in 2004 demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region's wealth of natural resources.
Updated from Print edition (below):
Sectarian killings: Hazaras wake up to another day of horror
In another ill-fated day for the increasingly vulnerable Hazara community, a local bus was attacked early Tuesday morning leaving 14 dead.
Of those killed in the attack, which occurred on a highway in Akhtarabad near Western Bypass of Quetta, only one person was not from the Hazara community.
Capital City Police Officer Ehsan Mehboob said the bus was carrying more than 20 people and was on its way from Kirani to Hazar Ganji, on the outskirts of Quetta. People from the Shia community often travel on this route to purchase vegetables and fruit for their shops in Quetta.
The bus was intercepted by a pickup that swerved in front of it and blocked its path. Assailants opened fire after distinguishing the Hazaras, said Deputy IGP Hamid Shakil.
The security vacuum in Balochistan has caused so much fear that ambulances did not reach the site for fear of another attack. The driver of the bus had to take the bodies and the injured to the hospital himself. “No one had the courage to shift the victims to the hospital,” the driver told reporters at the hospital.
The bodies and injured were taken to Bolan Medical Complex. The injured were then sent to Combined Military Hospital because of inadequate security and a lack of facilities.
Inspector General Balochistan police suspended the SHO of the Shalkot police station, in whose jurisdiction the attack occurred, while 10 suspects were detained.
The incident sparked protests in different parts of the provincial capital.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 5th, 2011.
COMMENTS (146)
I am really very sorry at the demise of our Shia brothers. Nothing could be more barbaric than to kill an innocent human on the name of religion, sect, or ethnicity. At the same time I have a question for my Shia brothers, where were they when Ahmadis and other minorities were getting discriminated and killed by the religious and secular authorities? At that time, you were either silent or with the authorities. Now this nation has become so heartless that they do not care about anybody other than themselves. If not directly, indirectly you are part of this psychosomatic state of this nation. I wish you had the courage to follow Hazarat Imam Hussain in real sense and called a spade a spade at that time, openly and clearly. Anyway, if authorities and people could not fix the root cause of this insanity, Brailvis will be the next target. Apart from theological differences, people need to stand up against injustice and compulsion on the name of religion or sect. Selective justice always haunts you in one way or other.
@Pessimistic Paki: Well said man i agree with you.the day isn't faraway when your suggestion will be practically implemented
Isn't an attack on our so called sovereignty? or only strikes from Americans in hotpursuit are count in this account? where are all those peoples who staged sitting strikes against drone strikes, where are those who offered funeral prayers of bin-laden? do they have courtsey to atleast recite surah-e fatiha for the victims of Mustang and Akhtar Abad.
Assalam-o-Allaikum Warahmatullah.This is all happening just due to brain washing and misguidance by the teachings of Islam in the revenging directions and prospects.Now the true guidance in the light of Quran and Sunah has been the need of the hour.Did ever Christians kill Christians,Hindus kill Hindus,Jews kill Jews,Sikhs kill Sikhs?Never even they have also strong religious differences amongst themselves.But only the muslims are defamed to kill each others.You can never kill any Kalima learner man provided that when you see that 2nd Kalima learner is harming the Muslim.
@ali: No Sir. Why don't you try and fix Pakistan and make it good
@Ram Bharose Singh:
Please think before you leap. The Hazaras as discussed earlier in this post, are ancestors of Mongol (Genghis Khan).
@Kallu Mama well then my innocent brother, you don't know what intelligence agencies do and why they have so much budget and why they recruit so many permanent people and buy so many foreign agents, no use to talk to you my friend, first go and learn the basics and understand what is happening under the surface all around the world, who gets leaders killed, who influences what and then we will talk.
@THIS IS COWARDNESSS: Keep dreaming my dear.
@Prasad Don't be emotional about this. It is true that any regional power be it India or KSA, in their region or US in North America, they have to protect their economic, geographic, cultural interests and this is what India is doing too but with coercion. You visit any country in SEA and you will see that India is making trouble and destabilizing most of the things, even when i was in one of he neighboring countries of India, there was a bid textile strike and the South Korean textile conglomerate's CEO saying that it is only the big neighborly power behind this. So, lets accept the facts as facts and not as Indians or Pakistanis and let me assure you that will keep on happening till the time one country discriminates against the other or one community discriminates against others.
Lot of Pakistanis who hate secularism must do some rethinking since Islamic Republic of Pakistan due to intolerance is close to disintegeration. Being secular is not Hinduism but giving equal respect to all religions and allowing all to practice their own faith without fear. Some of my Pakistani friends would quote some incidences of the past in India but they donot not happen on regular basis unlike Pakistan. I am happy for all minorities in India especially for my Muslim brothers that there is no discrimination against them which is the ultimate truth as I too belong to a minority community.
@Aamir: wow, ur more bothered about indians commenting on this post rather than the problem itself,even if the indians dont comment on this post (which they should coz they can) the problem will not go away,shias wud still have been killed mercilessly.
i live in australia and have a afghan hazara work colleague who came to australia in 2001 as a refugee.he is probably the nicest and the most respectful person ive ever met, dont know why somebody wud want to kill them.god bless everyone.
isnt asif ali zardari also shia he should take action against these sectarian groups
@breitzer
Being born and raised a Muslim doesn't mean you will be a good one. Same is true of all faiths. Do not try to pin this on others just because of the term "no Muslim could have done this." The term is actually "No GOOD Muslim could have done this." A bad one could easily do so.
Indian monkeys are gloating over these killings.
Really sad. Zia-ul-Haqs period will come to haunt us over and over again.
First of all, my sincere condolences to the bereaved families. Here is how we can stop this:
Remove all references to religion in our constitution. Pakistan has an overwhelming 97 % Muslim majority, and Islam and Muslims were never in danger here. If anyone needs protection, it is minority groups under the present state of affairs. Close Madrassas that preach hate against other denominations (I expect 99.99% of madrassas will close!) Islamiat curriculum to include an introduction to Islamic History and world religions. Teach that it is not right to resort to violence to settle religious differences. The state should not become party to religious disputes in any way. Vigorously prosecute anyone who incites or attempts to incite violence against any group or individual based on their religious beliefs. Teach the majority that minority groups have also contributed to Pakistan since its inception. Name roads, universities and public buildings after some of them. Try and teach reason and rationality rather than dogma and ritual.All these steps have to be taken by the majority, and the mindset that promotes violence in the name of religion (the extreme/fringe element, but rapidly increasing), advocates discrimination based on religious belief, or teaches contempt of individuals or groups based on religious beliefs, needs to be changed. If not, this will continue and become worse, and after the minority groups have been all killed or driven out, this will extend to groups within the majority.
Unfortunately, the majority is nowhere close to swallowing this bitter pill, and the disease is far more pervasive than would be cured by just arresting and prosecuting the perpetrators of any one incident......
@Jehangir: you are demanding so much from a government, which is seriously busy (24/7) in resolution of issues EXCEPT those of public interest.
instead our only demand should be that please do not stop us from protecting our lives. please note that in QUETTA innocent people are not allowed to carry any kind of licensed arms for their self-defense but there is no one to stop the TERRORISTS from claiming their lives.
no one but our agencies are involved in all such crimes. who trained these terrorists? who's providing them weapons? who's giving them exact information? why not one terrorist as captured? why they set free those terrorists whom they them self had announced as terrorist (like kareem kurd)? they are showing the world that they are killing talibans in north of pakistan, the one of strongest army cant finished them after several months? on the other side they do not take action against the taliban with in the country and politician like of PLMn help malik ishaq and other taliban to kill innocent people of pakistan. with all this hazara leaders are also involved in these killing as people of quetta have not forgotten 6th july............
No words can heal the wound left on soul of the people who lost the loved ones. I sincerely pray for the strength to them to overcome this unimaginably deep grief and sense of loss. As a human if I can contribute in doing anything to alleviate their pain I will feel very thankful to have this life. Lots of love to those who lost their dear ones and even to those who survived.
A line from the famous movie Troy says: '..there are no pacts between lions and men..' I guess the time has come to cut all half -measures, and quit talking about the long forgotten peace, because that is not surely coming. The only solution to all this mayhem is to retaliate with full force against the 'known' perpetrators; and by god, everyone knows who does this. Its all LJ! Dealing with obstinate, crazed and an illiterate mass requires force and terror. There seems no other option other than teaching these self-obsessed and self-proclaimed warriors of Islam a lesson; lesson from their own book. Enough of these stupid discussions on blogs with no results and even more innocent Shia blood being spilled. Ask those who lose their loved ones. Its easy to comment here and propose idiotic conspiracy theories alleging RAW and so on. The final thing is that the Muslims are themselves involved in these killings and none else- a bitter pill to swallow.
feel like my heart is crying out...
its not the matter of Saudia's interventions or Iran's intentions. Actually the fire of hatterd is on both side.My some brothers mentioned Sunni Madrasas to check the fatwas against Shiates,but he forgotten that Shia scholers have same belives about Sunnis. Here am not proving any side right,but fire is on both sides,which should be cooled down,by Us. Another thing to be noticed that is it action or reaction.It can be a reaction because Balochistan is the neighbour of Iran where Sunnis are more in numbers than Shias in Pakistan. These are facts ,those are always dumbed by Us. This wave of Sectism have a globel prospective and can't be solved without facing the realities.
It's makes my heart cry, what has happened to my beloved country. Everyday innocent people are being killed like animal's. Where is the government? Where are the security agencies? We Pakistan's have lost the human spirit and love, our hearts have become stone as we no more feel the pain of our brother's. Allah give us Hid-ayah, and the courage to stand up to fight for this nation and make a Pakistan of our Quiad. Ameen.
@Sarmad:
Are you denying burning of Christians in Gojra incidents? Why were Salman Taseer and Shehbaz Bhatti killed? Why is the judge in Mumtaz Qadri case in hiding?
Wrong photo. The photo has a chinese guy crying.
Dear Hazara Peoples and all other minorities i want to see you alive. please leave this country .Two nation theory has been blown away in the consequence of suicide blasts and every day it is shot in such incidents.its not indians its LEJ and SSP making mockrey of two nation theory.
@Junaid: Because they are Shias....
Shias are killed all Pakistan. In other cities Shias are in strong numbers and very strong politically as well. Balochistan is now very much full of taliban and anti shia groups that is why its happening more.
@BruteForce: very true brute force i agree with you
My dear Hazara brothers and sisters
I deplore these barbaric killings and I want to say that I will stand with you side by side to defend you against these animals. I do not understand why the government is not standing up for you but I think you should not expect these corrupt politicians to leave their air conditioned homes. It is time that all citizens of Pakistan get together and stand up for our minorities. Enough is enough. Stand up now!
It fair to say that Shias and other minorities are better treated and respected in India then in Pakistan, even in Wahabi country like Saudi Arabia, These countries may not share the religion or culture of minorities but certainly does not act like animals. I find respect and tolerance in a Christian country more so then in Pakistan. The true value of Islam are practiced by them Then by the so called Muslims. Senseless killing like these and then we wonder why are treated the way we are treated.
When the judiciary bows down in front of tyranny and a mass murder is unleashed who never stopped preaching hate and openly confessed to killing as many as 70 Shias then innocents are rest assured culled like animals.
Why is the government so afraid of going hard on LeJ? Strategic depth n all that eh? We Hazaras are being very patient. Do not test us please. We don't want to pick arms up just like we did against government back in 1996. I miss Milo and the likes of him who showed the government that force has never been a solution to any problem.
God bless Pakistan and down with the corrupt leaders.
The picture breaks my heart...
@ Sarmad - we saw how well you treated fellow Muslims in 1970, I can only imagine how full.of lies your statement with respect to other minorities is.
why Shia and other minorities being targeted in Pakistan? why don't have right to live with their own faith. When ISI will control their offspring and when our political parties will call APC to save Pakistanis not Pakistan. We strongly condemn the coward actions by terrorist groups under the nose of ISI and CIA.
Sovereignty does not apply when Shias are slaughtered in the country.
indeed very sad
“When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty! ” Bertolt Brecht
The best part about thread is that whenever any similar news breaks, a bunch of our 'neighbors' come crumbling to post their views under pseudo name. Please before you comment you should know that hindus christians and all sort o minorities live on PAkistan and we take them as our own brothers. We all share the green passport and each and everyone of us is proud of that.
We do not burn and massacre Minorities in our country we also don't hold their land and abuse UN regulations. We have lived together here for over 60 years, why only this has started happening now? Why were all minorities and sects co-existing peacefully since 47? Your enemy will not attack you from front when it is startled by your existence, hence it will find mir jafirs amongst us!
Is parcham k saye talay hum ek hen! PAKISTAN ZINDABAD..
Yet another attack on us. The crippled government has no plans for protecting Hazaras. They are all mouth and no trousers. Whatever happened to the governments plan of extracting special force from ATF to safeguard Hazaras?
So there is certainly some forces which are trying to disturb and exploit every single sensitive issue in Pakistan. They dont know yet Pakistan has grown much wiser. The solution will be found for each case and dealt with.
@kamran: Dear Sir, Mohd Ali Jinnah saved India when he demanded a separate land for these bigoted people , who were as bigoted as they are today , but lacked the occassion and means to wield the holy sword.
@z changezi: You hit the nail on the head. You are right !
Food for THOUGHT. 1400 years ago, the words Sunni, Shia, Ahmeddi, Wahabi were non existant. It does exist NOW. So please inform me as to whom is the true BELIEVER? To me a MUSLIM is a MUSLIM. A brother, sister, father and mother. To take a life in todays circumstances defies all logic. If we all believe in ALLAH then living in todays world, we should not be killing each other.
Disgusting. This is criminal negligence on part of the government. Killing of Shiite Muslims in Balochistan has become a routine affair now.
Please Stop it.
The problem lies with a few misguided MULLAHS. People can be influenced by these MULLAHS. Get RID of these so called MULLAHS and 70% of the problem is solved. The rest of the problem can be solved with emphasis on EDUCATION (Religious and Acedemic). Only if their is the WILL left in the current government.
That picture breaks my heart. May God bless and give strength to the families.
In a country where some groups are allowed to have all kinds of weapons, an agenda and will to use them against their rivals, others who don't have courage to fight these monsters will die in vain.
The Hazara people are being butchered while government and people just look on.I am a Sunni but it is disgusting to see our people being mercilessly killed whether they are religion minorities or sectarian minorities.
Animal kills for food. Human kills human for what? Which relegion is teaching to kill humans each other.
@ali: You should(as a nation) try to clean your country. Try to be accommodating and tolerant of differences. Learn these things from India. I agree, we are not a perfect nation with a myriad of problems among communities but we don't kill fellow Shias as you do in Pakistan. Earlier, we had mixed feeling regarding Pakistan, in the sense that some times I would ponder whether we the Muslims of India did the right things in staying back.Looking at the travails of Pakistan these days I feel the choice we made were perfectly right.I wish all Pakistanis brothers Happy Dussera. Yes that is what we learn in India, to celebrate differences and wish each others on such occasions, though you don't celebrate the festival yourselves. Perhaps there in lies lesson for you, Pakistan.
HOPE THE MOTORCYCLE GUY WILL BE FOUND IN 24 HOURS.
What is the essence of religion HUMAINITY, people have now forgotten or intentionally ignoring the true meanings that why people have transformed into human butchers, misusing the name of religion. STOP BLINDLY FOLLOWING SO CALLED 'SELF-RIGHTEOUS RELIGIOUS SCHOLARS' AND AND START TO THINK USING YOUR OUR BRAINS, GOD HAS GIVEN US THE ABILITY OF REASONING
I still remember what happened in Quetta on April 4th, 2004. It was Yaum-e-Aashoor, the rally was attacked and Hazaras in retaliation took arms and burnt major markets of Quetta. Something like that is going to happen it seems!
I am so sorry for what is happening and even more saddened by the authorities silence...it is absolutely heartbreaking! we are all humans FIRST and NOONE has the right to take another person's life! its THAT simple. no matter which religion, sect u come from, human values are universal..right and wrong is universal. and what is happening is just wrong! have some humanity!!
Pakistanis wake up Your Islamic Fundamentalism is the reason for all this if these killings need to stop stop being a addicted to Islam
Learn from India
Guys,Im a Muslim too.believe it if you want
Inna lillahe wa inna alaihe rajeon! Since we did not stop the injustice at the first place, when Ahmadis and other minorities were the target of this religious mafia, it is coming to haunt us. Believe me it will not stop but Brailvis will be their next target. We are just waiting for our turn. Martin Niemöller has a lesson for us provided someone brings us out from the state of denial, ignorance and hardheartedness. He wrote (for German people) First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out -- Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out -- Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out -- Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me.
I cannot even express how sad i felt when i saw the photo of the guy crying. He needs help but is anyone capable of providing a helping hand to him. I am from India and incidents like this are testing man's faith towards god and clearly i am losing my faith in supernatural power that supposedly is controlling us. Who has the answer for why is so called god not doing anything to protect his/her/its children and why are gods children doing such crimes is there no humanity left in Pakistan.
Yesterday I read: "The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything".
At the moment onus lies on the rest of the people (other than minorities) to publicly show their solidarity with Shias and other minorities. But, this can only happen, if rest of the people are truly sincere.
These cold blooded satanic killers have declared war against ALLAH and the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of ALLAH be on him). Enemies of humanity and ALLAH will rot in hell forever InshaALLAH.
Pakistan is great but it failed as a nation.The only hope for the pakistan is young secular and modrate people
Whole world calling Pakistan the epicenter of terrorism
Isn't it time for the whole nation to pause and think seriously?
Saudi funding or Arabnaization must be stopped . The amount of funding coming for saudi is hurting peace and promoting Extremist whabisim through proxy channels. like lasker e janghve...
Further more the real culprit for all this happening is General zia who radicalised and talibanized the country.
may all the souls rest in peace !! Ameen
it is tough to speculate HOW pakistan as a nation is going to survive?
This is disturbing. We are moving towards anarchy and it is scary and sad. I feel for those that have been so mercilessly murdered. I feel for their families and i share their remorse and anger. This is insane. May Allah make these murderers perish into nothingness and in such a way that they become an example to the rest of these mad men. Ameen.
We are with you as Pakistanis and Muslims. There is no shia, sunni, balochi, pathan, punjabi or sindhi. You hurt and we bleed.
We have to strongly condemn the merciless killing of innocents people whether they are belong from different religion / perish
@Elyas Kakar: thats what happens when you play with fire a lot, you will get on fire someday, samething is happening with Pakistan.
Well some very interesting political statements and we going into a tangent rather than facing the real problem. 1. If you visit any country of the world and i have found majority's discrimination towards minorities, whether that is based on religion, ethnicity, language, color or anything else 2. There is always a small lost set of people who teach hatred 3. You cannot blame the whole country for that 4. A Muslim brother of mine choosing to stay back in India instead of coming to Pakistan is not true to the real fact on the ground, there is big time discrimination wrt the minorities 5. Yes, it is government's responsibility to protect all and sundry 6. Baluchistan has been on the list of target for the US, India, Iran, Afghanistan and Israel lead by our Indian friends 7. Now they have been choosing the soft targets after security forces are protecting the natural resources there 8. Indian RAW uses SSP and LJ to implement their goals in PK 9. and we are a sitting duck doing nothing for now 10. Will hopefully pass by this bad patch of our history
My heart is aching looking at this man;s crying pic.... Allah help us...help or shia hazara brothers and sisters...beat the beast!
@malik: Oh please mr musharaf, connecting countries development with mobile phones. People like you have made this country a living hell. Are the Hazaras not our brothers, are they not equal to us. This is ridiculous, what if this happened to you today, seeing 4 janaza going out of your home, how will you feel?
terrible and very unfortunate, my heartfelt condolences go to the Hazara people. I hope we control the beast of talibs and extremist as well as the terrorist organizations originating from Punjab. Are these Hazaras not our brothers, are they not equally Pakistanis? Shame on these fanatics.
@Cautious: 20% is not a minority
@khurram mansoor: people identified and then gunned down because of their ethnicity is a sectarian killing. the sunni guy in this case might have been a mistake. calming down won't solve matters now.
Very sad! Killing someone due to his religion or his sect is not acceptable in Isalm. What is wrong with these barbarians. They should be hanged in the open streets