QUETTA: Terrorists belonging to an outlawed organisation attacked members of the Hazara Shia community in two different areas of the city on Monday and killed one person.
The killing brought to 27 the number of Hazaras shot dead over the past two weeks.
Ali Sher Haidri, a spokesman for the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi calling journalists from an unidentified place, claimed responsibility for the sectarian attacks of the past two weeks.
Sources said that in the first incident, terrorists on a motorcycle opened fire on a tyre shop in the Quivery Road area. The owner of the shop, Salman Ali, was killed on the spot. The gunmen escaped.
Police reached the area after the shooting and took the body of the victim to the Combined Military Hospital, Quetta.
Police said that Salman Ali, who lived in Marriabad, had been running the tyre shop in the area for a long time. The incident made a mockery of the government’s claim that it had taken adequate measures to protect people’s lives and honour.
Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani had presided over a high-level meeting on Sunday and decided to launch targeted operations against terrorists involved in sectarian and other killings in the province.
In the second incident on Monday, four Shia Hazaras escaped an attempt on their lives when terrorists on motorcycle opened fire at their yellow cab near the Benazir Shaheed overhead bridge linking Spiny Road with the city.
According to police, the Hazaras were coming to Quetta from their town yellow cab when they were attacked.
“Armed motorcyclists opened fire at the yellow cab when it reached near the bridge,” police sources said.
Miraculously, none of them suffered any injury.
In this attack also, the gunmen escaped from the area without being challenged by anyone.
Angered by continued killing of members of their community, a large number of Shia Hazaras gathered in the Mezeen Chowk area and blocked the road by burning tyres and erecting barricades.
They chanted slogans against the government and law-enforcement agencies for their failure to arrest any of the terrorists involved in the series of killings in the province.
All shops, markets, shopping malls and businesses in the main city were immediately closed.
Police and Frontier Corps personnel rushed to the area where people were protesting. They dispersed demonstrators and restored traffic.
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