QUETTA: Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch has said that people behind Thursday’s attacks on Hazaras and Maulana Fazlur Rehman will be arrested soon as encouraging progress has been made in the investigations into the cases.

He was talking to journalists after a visit to Hazara Town here on Saturday, where he met relatives of the eight Hazaras killed in Hazarganji area. He expressed sorrow over the tragic incident and assured the aggrieved families of support.

Dr Baloch also met other people of Shia Hazara community and told them that he had come there to express solidarity with their community which had again suffered an irreparable loss.

He said Thursday was a particularly bad day for the government and the people of Quetta who witnessed three attacks in which many people were killed or injured.

“A difficult situation is prevailing in the city.”

Soon after the attacks, he said, law-enforcement agencies conducted search operations in different areas of the city and arrested several suspects who were being interrogated.

The chief minister urged people to help the agencies in uprooting terrorism as the government alone could not eradicate the menace.

He said the government had made strict security arrangements for Muharram and deployed a large number of security personnel to protect Majalis and mourning processions in Quetta and other parts of the province.

Talking to the chief minister, the leaders of the Hazara community expressed dismay over the performance of law-enforcement agencies and said the government had failed to protect them.

Syed Raza Muhammad, a member of the Balochistan assembly, said the size of religious extremist groups, involved in targeted killing of Hazara people, was increasing in Quetta.

“The situation is worsening by the day. We have grown tired of facing incidents of targeted killing and receiving bodies of our relatives and friends,” he said.

He said the government was not ready to launch a crackdown against religious extremists who, according to him, were planning to set up an Islamic State-like government (in the city).

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2014