PAKISTAN: Pakistani Shi'ites prepare for second night of vigil to mourn 96 victims of sectarian bomb blasts

Record ID: 359495

  • Title: PAKISTAN: Pakistani Shi'ites prepare for second night of vigil to mourn 96 victims of sectarian bomb blasts
  • Date: 12th January 2013
  • Summary: QUETTA, PAKISTAN (JANUARY 12, 2013) (REUTERS) MOURNERS SITTING WITH COFFINS TWO CASKETS VARIOUS OF MOURNERS AND COFFINS A WOMAN ADDRESSING CROWD VARIOUS OF MOURNERS AND COFFINS (SOUNDBITE) (Urdu) SHI'ITE CLERIC, ALLAMA NASIR ABBAS, SAYING: "Quetta should be handed over to the army. There should be an operation against the terrorists to punish them. We are sitting here to d
  • Embargoed: 27th January 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Pakistan
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Topics: Crime,Politics,People
  • Reuters ID: LVA8RP0WIPF6VQ6VB9P7M46N4KQS
  • Story Text: Pakistani government officials met with Shi'ite leaders late on Saturday (January 12), as thousands of protesters prepared for a second night in the rain, alongside the bodies of 96 people killed in one of the worst sectarian attacks in the country's history.
    Leaders of Shi'ite Hazaras, the ethnic group which was the target of Friday's twin bombings in the provincial capital Quetta, have vowed not to bury their dead until authorities promise to protect them from a rising tide of sectarian attacks.
    Around 2,000 people spent Friday night (January 11) outside keeping vigil at the site of the bombings, claimed by the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) Sunni militant group, spreading plastic sheets over the shrouded bodies to keep the rain off them.
    By Saturday (January 12), the number had swelled to around 5,000.
    "Quetta should be handed over to the army. There should be an operation against the terrorists to punish them. We are sitting here to demand peace," said a Shi'ite cleric, Allama Nasir Abbas.
    Muslim tradition requires that bodies are buried as soon as possible and leaving them above ground is a powerful expression of grief and pain.
    A delegation led by Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khurshid Shah met Shi'ite leaders after they complained about what they believe is the indifference of most Pakistani politicians to their plight.
    Syed Dawood Agha, the vice president of the Shi'ite Conference of Quetta, said negotiations were underway with the government but nothing had been decided by Saturday night.
    Small protests were also held in the cities of Lahore, Karachi and the capital of Islamabad, where around two hundred protesters held candles and placards demanding an end to attacks on Shi'ites, who make up 20 percent of Pakistan's population.
    Parliamentarian Bushra Gohar from the Awami National Party (ANP) was the only prominent politician attending the protest in the capital.
    She said there were several reasons why officials had been slow to respond: support for militants, fear or indifference.
    Security policy in Pakistan is dominated by the army, which denies accusations it retains ties to militant groups, in part to counter the influence of India.
    The ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which has seen some of its own senior politicians gunned down, has often been unwilling to speak out against militants for fear of being killed.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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