Kirani blast victims laid to rest

Amid tears and cries, members of the Hazara community buried all 90 dead bodies in Hazara Town graveyard four days after the massive suicide blast at Kirani Road.

Hundreds of people‚ including women and children attended the final rites of the blast victims. “All dead bodies have been buried,” Balochistan Shia Conference President Dawood Agha confirmed.

Prior to the burial‚ aggrieved protesters at Hazara Town graveyard started aerial firing while the bodies were being buried. As a result of stampede that ensued, two persons were injured.

Angry mob pelted stones and opened fire at the vehicle of Quetta Deputy Commissioner (DC) Mansoor Kakar. “The DC narrowly escaped the firing,” said Fayyaz Sumbal, the deputy inspector general (DIG) of police in Quetta.

The Frontier Corps (FC) and police personnel quickly retaliated, and dispersed the enraged protesters with their aerial firing. Security forces also cordoned off the graveyard. More FC and police personnel were sent into the area to maintain law and order in the aftermath of the aerial firing.

The Hazara community staged a four-day sit-in to protest against the attack on February 16. Women and children sat under open sky in freezing nights to mourn the deaths and to demand a targeted operation against the culprits. Sit-ins were also staged in major cities such as Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad to show solidarity with the victims. On Tuesday, a government delegation met Shia leaders, who announced to call off the protests. All roads, which remained blocked due to the protests, were opened for traffic on Wednesday. Similarly, suspended airport routes and railway traffic also resumed in Karachi and other cities.

Despite a formal announcement by Shia leaders to call off the sit-in, some highly charged young men from the Hazara community were still staging a sit-in on the bypass area, the outskirts of Quetta. “We will not end the protest until our demands are met,” Muhammad Ali Hazara, one of the protesters told a private TV channel. He said the family members of the Kirani Road victims were not taken into confidence during negotiations with the government.

Meanwhile, Abdul Qayyum Changezi, a central leader of the Quetta Yakjehti Council, said that the burial process was initiated after permission from the heirs of the dead, as dialogue between the government and the Hazara community leaders concluded successfully. He said both the parties had agreed that the army would carry out a targeted operation against banned organisations in Quetta. “The people who were placing hurdles in the burial process were irrelevant persons,” Changezi said.

Elsewhere in Islamabad, protesters gathered outside the Supreme Court, where the chief justice of Pakistan was hearing the suo motu case on the bombing.

A parliamentary delegation led by Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira told Shia leaders that four suspects had been killed and 170 others had been arrested, adding that the FC and Rangers had kicked off an operation against the militants. “The operation will go on until all culprits are nabbed,” Kaira added.

“All our demands have been met,” said Shia leader Amin Shaheedi. “The government has assured us that Quetta will be protected now and such incidents will not be repeated.”

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the government had also replaced the provincial police chief and offered to heavily fortify the Hazara Shia enclave in Quetta.