QUETTA: The Balochistan Assembly has adopted a resolution condemning the Mach incident in which several coal miners belonging to the Shia Hazara community were slaughtered earlier this month.

Speaker Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo presided over the session on Friday evening.

While moving the resolution during the session, Hazara Democratic Party member Qadir Ali Nayel said the tragedy had affected not only the Hazara community but all other communities in the province.

The incident was a continuation of the plight of the Hazara community for the past 22 years, he added.

Mr Nayel said that the blood of vegetable sellers, students and even women belonging to the Hazara community had been shed. He said that the revolutions of 1978 and 1979 in neighbouring countries had had negative effects on our community.

“We can no longer tolerate such incidents. Our mothers ask who is responsible for such incidents and when they will be punished,” he said.

He asked the government to bring the culprits involved in this tragic incident to justice.

“A truth commission should be set up to look into the Mach tragedy and other such incidents,” he said.

Opposition Leader Malik Sikandar, Akhtar Hussain Langu and Malik Naseer Shahwani also demanded the setting up of a truth commission and said that a fact-finding commission should also be set up.

Mr Sikandar said that a commission headed by the home minister had been set up on the request of family members of the deceased.

Mubeen Khilji of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf condemned the incident.

Sports Adviser Abdul Khaliq Hazara said that the resolution condemning the tragedy should be passed in its original form.

Opposition members criticised the government for deteriorating law and order, power and gas loadshedding and expressed concern over rising inflation.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2021