QUETTA, July 30: The Hazara Democratic Party and Majlis Wahdatul Muslemin have urged people to observe a strike in the city on Sunday in protest against two terrorist attacks in which seven pilgrims were killed on Friday and 11 Hazara tribesmen were gunned down on Saturday.

At a joint press conference on Saturday, leaders of the two parties appealed to the chief justices of Pakistan and the Balochistan High Court to take suo motu notice of the growing incidents of targeted killing in the city.HDP secretary general Ali Ahmed Kohzad and Hashim Musavi of Majlis Wahdatul Muslemin said that people belonging to the Shia community were being targeted in the province and criticised the government and law-enforcement agencies for their failure to curb such attacks.

They said that killing of 11 members of the Hazara community on Sunday within 24 hours of the gruesome murder of seven pilgrims had proved beyond doubt that the government had miserably failed to provide protection to the Shia community.

Mr Kohzad pointed out that about 650 Hazara tribesmen had lost their lives and another 800 suffered injuries in acts of targeted killing since 2001.

He announced that a sit-in would be held outside the parliament in Islamabad if the government failed to provide protection to the Hazara tribesmen.

Mr Kohzad said that involvement of foreign countries and intelligence agencies in sectarian violence and targeted killings could not be ruled out.