Members of the Shia community took to the streets in protest in both Quetta and Peshawar. PHOTO: PPI
HANGU:
The death toll from the Hangu bomb blast mounted to 30 on Saturday while the number of injured reached 56. A day of mourning was observed in the district following Friday’s attack.
The district government imposed Section 144 of the Pakistan Penal Code which bars pillion riding, protests and the display of arms. Large contingents of security personnel, levies forces and paramilitary troops, along with the police, were deployed.
Amidst grief, five police personnel who lost their lives in the blast were laid to rest. They were identified as Yasin Ali, Qaisar Shafiq, Abdul Hameed, Awal Nabi and Wajahat Hussain. The city was shrouded in complete silence as businesses, government institutes and other activities came to a complete halt.
Commenting on Friday’s attack, Tehreek-e-Jafaria’s Khursheed Anwar Jawadi said that the incident cannot just be described as an instance of sectarian violence and could be a terrorist attack. He said that a banned outfit, such as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, may have been responsible for it.
“No one should make a sectarian issue out of this,” he said, adding that both Shias and Sunnis should work together to establish lasting peace in the area.
On Friday, a bomber detonated explosives packed onto a motorcycle in Hangu’s Pat Bazaar that houses both a Shia and Sunni mosque.
Protests
The Majlis-e-Wadat-ul-Muslimeen staged a protest against the blast, in Quetta on Saturday.
Speaking to the protestors, leader of the Shia group Alama Syed Hashmi Moswi said that the attack on the people – who were engrossed in Friday prayers – is worthy of condemnation. He said such incidences are taking place through a conspiracy to spread sectarianism in the country and its sole purpose is to spread hatred.
Similarly, in Peshawar, protests against the blast were planned by the Jamaat-e-Islami and various Shia representatives.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 3rd, 2013.
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Its unfortunate that such a self-defeating and twisted narrative is adopted even by the minority to appeal to the majority.
Any bombing is a terrorist attack, including if its a sectarian attack. Hence any large scale sectarian shooting or bombing massacre should indeed be considered a terrorist attack by default instead of the unbalanced stigmatizing 'sectarian violence' label. If the motives were sectarian, it does not make it any less of a religious terrorist attack if it weren't.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21289738