QUETTA: The Balochistan capital, which has lately been buffeted by a wave of terrorist attacks, was rocked again on Saturday when two members of the Shia Hazara community were gunned down in the heart of the city.

It was the second attack on the minority community within a week and third this month. Two Hazara men were killed in a similar attack last Sunday.

Quetta was also rocked by three suicide bombings on Tuesday that targeted policemen and paramilitary soldiers. Six policemen were killed and 15 members of the security forces wounded in those bombings.

Police officials said on Saturday that armed men riding a motorcycle during the rush hour opened fire on the two men who were sitting in an electronics shop in the Jamaluddin Afghani Road area, which is located in the centre of the city.

“Two men of the Hazara community died in the firing on the spot, after receiving bullet wounds in their heads,” said SP Abdullah Afridi.

Members of minority community hold protests in parts of provincial capital

Police personnel rushed to the scene of the attack immediately after learning about it and took the bodies to hospital. The victims were identified as Jaffar Ali and Muhammad Ali, who were relatives.

“It is an incident of sectarian killing,” a police officer said, adding that the bodies were handed over to their heirs after completing medico-legal formalities.

Policemen seized spent shells of 9mm from the crime scene. Doctors confirmed that both deceased were shot in the forehead from close range.

Protests, hunger strike

After the deadly incident, hundreds of members of the Hazara Democratic Party (HDP), Hazara Traders’ Action Committee and other members of the community assembled in the Meezan Chowk area.

They burnt tyres and erected barricades on the main roundabout, which badly affected traffic in Kandahari Bazaar and on Liaquat and other roads.

The protesters, who were carrying banners and placards, raised slogans against the government.

Speaking on the occasion, HDP secretary general Raza Wakeel condemned the continued killing of Hazaras and said the law-enforcement agencies had utterly failed to protect the community. He called for immediate arrest of perpetrators of the attacks on Hazaras.

In the evening, a group of Hazara women and children gathered in front of the Quetta Press Club and staged a protest against the government and the law-enforcement agencies.

They were led by a lawyer known as Advocate Jaleela, who announced that she was starting a hunger strike in protest against the fatal attack.

“I will fast until the arrest of the terrorists involved in it,” she said, adding that her community had lost at least 3,000 people in such attacks in the last decade.

She appealed to Army Chief General Javed Qamar Bajwa to take notice of the situation and take steps for stopping the “genocide of Hazara community”.

The members of the community also held a demonstration against the provincial government and law-enforcement agencies at the Bacha Khan Chowk, located in the centre of the city.

A senior leader of the HDP, Bostan Ali, led the protesters who burnt tyres and halted traffic.

In his address, Mr Ali said the provincial government was busy in finalising the budget while people were being killed in cold blood.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2018