Protest held in Lahore against Shia killings

LAHORE: "First they came for the Christians, then they came for the Ahmadis, then they came for the Shias – who will they pick next?" read one of the signs held by protestors outside the Press Club here on Wednesday.

Protesting over the recent Shia killings in Babusar and Quetta, as many as 20 people stood outside the press club to voice their concerns over the government’s lack of control of the situation, which they said was getting worse. "Shias are being killed for belonging to a particular sect, it was not by chance that all of them happened to be Shias," said Amaullah Karriaper while speaking to The Express Tribune.

Karriaper, a software engineer by profession and the person who had organised the protest, said that targeted killings of Shias had augmented across the country this year.

“This is extremely dangerous for the country when a group of people are being targeted for the faith they prescribe for,” said Karriaper.

Karriaper said that according to the HRCP as many as 313 Shias have been killed this year alone. He added that the government was clearly not doing enough to bring an end to sectarian violence in the country. “None of this would have happened without the active connivance of the government and the law enforcing agencies,” said Karriaper who was also actively involved in the lawyers’ movement in 2007.

Demanding that the government take immediate notice of the growing violence in the society, participants held banners and placards in what was a small and peaceful protest.

“The protest was called by a group of Sunni citizens so that people and specifically the media does not dismiss us as a marginalised segment of the society,” said Karriaper, pointing at a banner which read "we condemn the killings of our Shia brethren – Sunni Citizens." He added that the protestors were independent citizens who wanted to express their concerns and solidarity with the Shia community.

“People here in Punjab are not sensitised about the issue and how people are being persecuted in this country,” said Hasan Rehman, another protestor.

Rehman has been in social activism for the past 5 years, and this was the first time he was participating in a protest over Shia killings.

This was one of the several small protests which have been organised in the city over Shia killings with one of the earliest dating back to April when a group of over 50 citizens protested against the killings of Hazaras in Quetta.