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.
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@Ex-PPP: I wish you were correct, but unfortunately it doesn't seems like the case.
By the way, who ever organized this, well done! You are better than us and especially the three people who have commented above.
@Hameed: Don't mix two different issues. You have no idea how Courts work. Those people were set free due to lack of prosecution and evidence.
@Sophist: This protest was organized by Sunnis.
It is so tragic that other then Shia Muslim themselves, no one else is actually protesting the killngs of Shia. I request our other Muslim brothers from Ahle hadees and Ahle sunnat to express there views openly and strongly to make this clear that we all as a Muslim nation are against these barbaric acts.
So in case the government catches the culprit what then? Has anyone, especially the media, wondered what happened to the "only" two terrorists caught in Ahmadi place of worship, and what has happened to them? No news on them. Probably state guest in some jail....?