Taftan suicide attack: Protesters demand compensation for victims

Claim no govt official visited victims’ families to express condolences.

KALAYA: Hundreds of people gathered in Kalaya, the headquarters of Lower Orakzai Agency, on Friday to condemn the attack on Shia pilgrims in Taftan recently and demanded compensation from the government.

Led by local elder Mian Fazal Abbas, protesters gathered in front of the Madrassa Ahle Bait and chanted slogans against the government for failing to provide security to pilgrims visiting Iran.

While addressing protesters, Abbas said 24 victims of the suicide attack in Taftan on June 8 were from Orakzai Agency and Kohat, adding all the bodies were brought to their hometowns and buried.

Abbas said the entire community was devastated by the attack and not a single government official had visited them to express condolences. “We are human beings and not animals, 24 people of our community have been killed. This is not an everyday incident,” said Abbas.

He claimed the relentless targeting of Shias meant that certain elements are trying to plunge the region into a new wave of violence and asked the government to compensate the victims’ families and launch a military operation in the area where the attack occurred.

Abbas warned that if the government does not do so, the victims’ families will be forced to take matters into their own hands.

Following the incident on Sunday night, Iran closed its border with Pakistan for an indefinite period and security was also tightened.

A handout issued after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s core committee meeting on Monday questioned measures taken by the federal and provincial governments to ensure security of Shia pilgrims.

Pilgrims visiting the Shia holy sites in Iran via land have to pass through Balochistan and have been brutally attacked several times in the past.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 14^th, 2014.