Victims' burial delayed

Published March 4, 2004

QUETTA, March 3: A Shia leader, Allama Syed Jan Ali Kazmi, said on Wednesday that the bodies of the victims of firing by terrorists and law-enforcement agencies would not be buried till the government removed the Anti-Terrorism Force (ATF) and Frontier Corps officials involved in the incident.

Speaking at a press conference at Imambargah Nachari, where 32 bodies were being kept, he alleged that a majority of the people killed in Tuesday's incident died due to the firing of the ATF and militiamen.

He demanded the removal of the security officials involved in firing on the procession, lodging of an FIR against them and lifting of the curfew from the locality inhabited by the mourners before the burial.

Speaking to people at the imambargah, Allama Kazmi criticized the pro-America polices of President Gen Pervez Musharraf. He said Tuesday's incident was a result of "negligence or collusion" of the security forces.

A leader of the community, Allama Yaqoob Ali Tawosali, talking to newsmen, blamed the administration for inadequate security arrangements. He said the government had been told that if the 26 arrested people of his community were not released, they would not bury the bodies.

Dr Ghulam Mohammad, Zakir Hussain and Daud Shah who were arrested on Monday and released on Wednesday, accused the ATF and the police of torturing them in the police station. They said they had been arrested at the Junction Chowk.

Protesters at the imambargah, through resolutions, demanded immediate transfer of provincial police chief Dr Shoaib Suddle and resignation of District Nazim Mohammad Rahim Kakar.

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