LAHORE: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has condemned the killing of six men at a shrine in Karachi reportedly by Taliban-linked militants and demanded meaningful steps to put an end to the killing of citizens by extremists.

In a statement released to the media on Wednesday, the commission said: "The killing of six young devotees in Karachi apparently for visiting a shrine is proof, if more proof was needed, that staying alive in Pakistan today is a privilege reserved for those who unthinkingly and without question comply with the whims of cold-blooded killers who have long tried to fool people into thinking that their actions have something to do with religion."

In this instance, the apparent crime of the victims of cold-blood barbarism was to visit a shrine. A note left with the bodies, threatening all those who visit shrines would meet a similar end, is no guarantee that anyone outside the shrines is safe from the killers' boundless thirst for blood. A bomb attack on the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi in Karachi had killed eight people, a few years ago. Similar attacks on shrines have been witnessed in Peshawar and other parts of the country.

"Words of condemnation and sympathy from official quarters bring little comfort to the affected families or the multitudes of people who seek nothing but peace and an end to the senseless killings unleashed by the militants. HRCP demands that the government formulate and publicise a firm strategy to save the people from such atrocities and take unambiguous steps to implement the same."

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2014