LAHORE: As protest against killings of Hazara community members in Balochistan intensified following ‘insensitive’ remarks of Prime Minister Imran Khan in the country, PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif has directed the party leaders and workers to participate in the protest camps and also announced taking this matter to the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) forum to express solidarity with the oppressed community and seek justice for the victim families.

“I strongly endorse the call for the demonstrations in support of the Hazara community. I have directed all regional leaders, workers and supporters to ensure their participation in all protests and to express robust solidarity with the aggrieved community,” Nawaz Sharif said in a direction to the party here on Friday.

He also directed former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to contact PDM president Maulana Fazlur Rehman and other leaders to take up this matter on this forum.

In a tweet, Mr Sharif further said: “The man (Imran Khan) who has become prime minister with the blessings of a few generals can never feel the pain of the masses. The oppressed people of Hazara community are waiting for the man who is calling them ‘blackmailers’. I would like to ask from those who have imposed this stone-hearted man on the nation whether they feel any regret now.”

PPP leaders seek apology from prime minister for remarks

The deposed premier also assured the Hazara community that the entire country stood with them at this time of crisis.

Upon his direction, a good number of PML-N workers joined the protest camps set up in different parts of the province by the Wahdatul Muslimeen to protest against the killings in Balochistan’s Mach area and ‘insensitive’ comment by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

PML-N Information Secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb told Dawn that the PDM parties would join the protest of the Hazaras. She said taking this matter to the PDM forum was meant to express solidarity with the Hazara community and seek justice for it.

Calling on the Hazara community to refrain from blackmailing him, PM Khan said on Friday that his government had accepted all of their (protesters’) demands but one of their demands was that the dead would be buried after premier’s visit.

“I have sent them a message that when all of your demands have been accepted... you don’t blackmail the prime minister of any country like this. Anyone will blackmail the prime minister then,” Khan said. The remark also stoked outrage on the social media.

On Sunday last, armed attackers slit the throats of 11 miners in a residential compound near a mine site in Balochistan’s Mach coalfield area, filming the entire incident and later posting it online. The gruesome attack was claimed by the militant Islamic State (IS) group.

Since then, thousands of Hazaras have staged a protest along with coffins containing the miners’ bodies in the western bypass area in Quetta, while members of their community have also held protests across the country. The protesters say they will not bury the miners’ bodies until PM Khan meets them and the killers are brought to justice, continuing their protest on Friday for the sixth straight day.

Chiding Imran Khan, the opposition parties said his use of word blackmailer for the Hazara community showed his mindset and the level of apathy.

PPP Senator Sherry Rehman said in a tweet: “Prime Minister Imran Khan thinks that people asking him to fulfill their just demands are blackmailing him. He should apologise to the bereaved families for saying them (blackmailers) and go there right away. If Raja Parvez as PM can go why can’t he?”

The “egoistic and ruthless” prime minister had set the worst example, she said and added Imran’s statement was an “insult to corpses of the slain coal miners.”

PPP secretary general Nayyar Hussain Bukhari demanded an apology from Imran Khan for calling the bereaved families of Hazara martyrs blackmailers. “Calling people in grief blackmailers represents the low mentality of Imran Khan. This statement of Imran Khan is height of insensitivity. He has shamed the entire Pakistani nation with his despicable personality. He should ask for an apology from the Hazara community and the nation,” he demanded.

Another PPP leader Faisal Karim Kundi said ‘egoistic’ Imran Khan should be ashamed of his words. “Treating a grieving community with such disdain represents a sick mind. It seems that the selected PM Imran Khan has embarrassed his selectors as well. The selectors must be reviewing their choice,” he said.

He said the entire nation was grieving and mourning the Mach tragedy but the egoistic person who suffered from illusory perception of himself was calling the mournful community blackmailers. “Nothing could be more disgraceful than this narrative,” Kundi said.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2021