QUETTA, Sept 10: Armed men shot dead a retired professor of the Balochistan University here on Friday. Prof Atiqul Hasan Naqvi was on way home from his private school at Sariab and waiting for a bus at about 12:30pm when two men on a motorbike came and opened fire , killing him on the spot. Prof Naqvi's son, Arshad Hasan Naqvi, had been shot dead two years ago.

Soon the news spread and the Shia community after Friday prayers took out a protest procession from the Prince Road Mosque and marched on different roads, chanting slogans against terrorists and the government.

They also staged a sit-in front of the civil hospital, where the body had been kept, and refused to disperse. But when the chief minister came and assured them of the arrest of criminals, they ended the protest.

Chief Minister Jam Muhammad Yousuf, with Balochistan Finance Minister Syed Ehsan and the chief secretary, spoke to the protesters in the hospital. He said the murder was terrorism and his government had directed the law-enforcement agencies to eliminate the network of terrorists.

The chief minister said the government had directed police to arrest the culprits within three days. All efforts would be made to protect citizens and terrorists would not be given a free-hand to play with the lives of innocent people, he assured the protesters.

After the assurance, the protesters took the body from the hospital and dispersed peacefully. Earlier, Allama Yaqoob Ali Tawasoli and Allama Mehdi Najafi spoke to the protesters and alleged that from the time of Ziaul Haq till the Musharraf government, the Shia community had remained the target of an extremist religious group and the government had failed to take an action against culprits.