PAKISTAN: Pakistan Shi'ites prepare to bury bomb victims

Record ID: 357611

  • Title: PAKISTAN: Pakistan Shi'ites prepare to bury bomb victims
  • Date: 14th January 2013
  • Summary: QUETTA, PAKISTAN (JANUARY 14, 2013) (REUTERS) COFFINS PLACED IN SHI'ITE MOSQUE MEN CARRYING CASKET MOURNERS SITTING BY COFFINS MAN CRYING WHILE HOLDING PHOTOGRAPH OF DEAD RELATIVE BODY BEING BROUGHT TO MOSQUE VARIOUS OF RELATIVES PRAYING NEXT TO BODY RELATIVES SITTING BY COFFINS
  • Embargoed: 29th January 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Pakistan
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Reuters ID: LVA8XRWHQ693RVLB0GXPY1KL01KJ
  • Story Text: Shi'ite Muslims agreed on Monday (January 14) to begin burying nearly 100 of their people killed three days ago in one of Pakistan's deadliest sectarian attacks after the prime minister said he would comply with their demands to sack the local government.
    Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf met leaders of the Shi'ite Hazara community in a mosque near the site of Thursday's twin bombings in Quetta, capital of Balochistan province, and told them he would dismiss the province's chief minister and cabinet.
    Ashraf said he would impose "governor rule", which allows him to replace local authorities, some of whom the Hazara accuse of fomenting violence against them.
    In response, the Shi'ites will call off their three-day-long protest sit-in and begin burials on Monday, said Qayyum Changazi, chairman of the Yakjehti Council, a national umbrella organization of Shi'ite groups.
    The coffins were brought to a mosque where funeral prayers for the dead will be offered.
    Protests against the Thursday (January 9) attacks on Shi'ites had spread across Pakistan over the weekend. The attacks, claimed by the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militant group, killed at least 96 people.
    Sectarian killings have been rising in Pakistan even as deaths from other militant violence have dropped.
    Islamic tradition demands that the dead be buried as soon as possible.
    Leaving the bodies of loved ones above ground for so long is such a potent expression of grief and pain that many people in other cities held protests and vigils in solidarity.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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