ISLAMABAD: During Thursday's hearing of the suo motu notice taken of unabated killings of the Hazara community,the Supreme Court of Pakistan instructed Balochistan's Inspector General of Frontier Constabulary Maj Gen Obaidullah Khattak, provincial home secretary Akbar Durrani and CCPO Quetta to submit their reply in court by Feb 26, DawnNews reported.

A three-judge bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar was hearing the case.

Attorney General of Pakistan Irfan Qadir submitted a reply on Quetta's Kirani road incident on behalf of the federation. He informed the court that the reply could be considered as a reply of the President and Prime Minister of Pakistan.

The court adjourned the hearing on the case until Feb 26.

Earlier during the hearing Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry remarked that intelligence was supposed to be shared with law-enforcement agencies and not with the court.

During the proceedings, the chief justice moreover inquired as to what was the assurance that such incidents would not occur in the future.

Nasir Ali Shah, a Pakistan People's Party (PPP) MNA from Balochistan, told the court that some 1,500 people had been killed between 2002 and 2013.

Shah added that members of the Hazara community had buried their dead but were fearful of more attacks.

The hearing was adjourned to 11:30 am due to the absence of certain officials who had been summoned to appear before the bench.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had claimed before the bench that it had forewarned of the carnage in which over 87 innocent Shia Hazaras lost their lives in Quetta.

“A huge consignment of explosives was being transported,” the ISI had stated in a report submitted to the bench.

Read out by Director Legal of the Ministry of Defence Commander Shahbaz, the ISI report had said that despite being in a crude form, the information had been passed on (to the provincial government) about an imminent bomb blast. It said the terrorists had taken advantage of water scarcity in Hazara Town and sent a tanker loaded with 800-1,000 kilograms of explosives.

The court had also asked the Balochistan home secretary, DIG and FC Inspector General Obaidullah Khattak to appear before it on Thursday and disclose the names of people who had failed to inspect the water tanker whereas interior and defence secretaries are required to submit reports on the Jan 10 Alamdar road bombing.

Operation against Lashkar-i-Jhangvi

On Wednesday, the federal government had announced that the operation launched against the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ) would continue until the arrest of its entire leadership.

Briefing reporters after a meting of the federal cabinet, Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira had stated that all law-enforcement agencies were participating in the operation which had led to the killing of four LJ members and arrest of 170 people allegedly involved in carrying out attacks on Hazara Shias.

“We assure everybody in the country that the government will take the ongoing operation to its logical conclusion.”