Official visit: Important clues found in Shikarpur blast, says CM

Qaim Ali Shah expresses condolence with the bereft, distributes cheques.

SUKKUR: Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah announced that a high-level committee comprising five members, investigating the bomb blast that took place at an imambargah in Shikarpur, has found some important clues relating to the tragedy.

He was on a visit to Shikarpur on Wednesday and said this while speaking to the media. Earlier, he expressed condolence with the bereaved families and distributed compensation cheques among the heirs of those who were killed and injured.

Terming the imambargah bombing a very sensitive matter and a blatant act of terrorism, he said that all the cases relating to terrorism and religious extremism will be referred to the military courts. These courts will hear the cases and announce verdicts within two weeks, he added.

The high-level committee is headed by Larkana DIG Saen Rakhio Mirani. According to Shah, some important clues have been found relating to the imambargah tragedy. He said he was hopeful that the culprits will be arrested soon.

Earlier, the 12-member Shuhada Committee submitted a 14-point demand to the chief minister. These demands included conducting an operation like Zarb-e-Azb throughout Sindh in general, and particularly in Shikarpur, taking action against the seminaries that are creating hatred among different sects, keeping a vigilant eye on the seminaries and mosques belonging to all sects, registering non-locals especially the Afghans and internally displaced persons coming to Shikarpur for business, providing jobs to the children of the deceased, and demolishing shops alongside the wall of the imambargah to ensure security.

One of the members of the Shuhada Committee, Syed Mir Hassan Shah, told The Express Tribune that the Shia community is not satisfied with the probe in the imambargah tragedy. “We doubt [the government’s] sincerity,” he said.

He further said that Shah distributed cheques of compensation among the families of the deceased and the injured at the deputy commissioner’s office. Cheques amounting to Rs2 million were given to the family of each deceased person and a cheque of Rs200,000 was given to those of each injured person.

Meanwhile, dozens of shopkeepers whose shops are situated alongside the boundary wall of the Imambargah Karbala Maula staged a demonstration on the chief minister’s arrival. They carried placards and were led by Muhammad Khan Channa, Shahzado Channa and others.

Talking to the media, the shopkeepers said that since the explosion occurred at the imambargah on January 30, they are not being allowed by the district administration to open their shops in view of security threats.

They said that the Shuhada Committee’s demand to demolish the shops is not justified. “These shops have been here since decades and we pay rent to the municipal committee on a regular basis,” said a protester.

The shopkeepers demanded Shah avert the demolishing of the shops as they have no alternative means to earn livelihood for their families.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 12^th, 2015.