Voicing demands: Shikarpur Shuhada committee to march to CM House

They are calling for a military operation in Shikarpur, removal of CM.

KARACHI: A Shuhada committee for the Shikarpur bombing victims is planning to hold a long march from Shikarpur to the provincial Chief Minister House on Sunday, February 15.

"We have decided to march from Shikarpur to Karachi," Syed Mir Hassan Shah, a member of the 12-person committee headed by Maulana Maqsood Domki, told The Express Tribune. Shah lost his brother-in-law Raza Ali Shah, an officer at the provincial education department, in the deadly attack. "Our demands are clear. We want a military operation in Shikarpur like the one in Wana, Waziristan, and we want the removal of CM Qaim Ali Shah."

There have been six militant attacks in Shikarpur, which lies on the Balochistan border, in the past year. A total of 62 people lost their lives and several others were wounded in an explosion during Friday prayers at Karbala Maula Imambargah in Lakhi Dar last Friday.

Police investigators have so far failed to arrest the culprits but they have initiated further inquiries with the help of the tailor who had reportedly stitched the bomber's clothes found at the site.

"We suspect that the banned outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi was behind the attack," said Raja Omar Khattab, the in-charge of the Crime Investigation Department's counter-terrorism unit, while talking to The Express Tribune. He added that the tailor was not being treated as a suspect but he would be of help in tracing those responsible.

"The six attacks within a year prove that there is a strong network of militants in Shikarpur who are targeting the Shia community," said Shah. "We are inviting the army to search the worship places, offices and houses of our community before launching an operation against the militant outfits." He warned that the sit-in outside CM House will continue until their demands were met.

Meanwhile, the Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) announced its support for the march. "We fully support their protest," said MWM central general secretary Allama Raja Nasir Abbas Jafri. "A military operation should be launched in all of Sindh and particularly in Karachi."

Published in The Express Tribune, February 7^th, 2015.