Hazara community ends sit-in, to bury dead Friday

QUETTA: Leader of Hazara community, Abdul Khaliq Hazara Thursday announced to end the sit-in being staged in Quetta and to bury the remains of the slain pilgrims on Friday, following the assurance of action from Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.

Talking to media, Abdul Khaliq Hazara said the dead of Mastung carnage will be buried on Friday at 10:00 AM.

Immediately after the above announcement, leader of Majlis-e-Wahadatul Muslimeen (MWM), Raja Nasir Abbas in a media statement said the nationwide sit-downs will continue, but soon afterwards announced to end the demonstrations.

Earlier, talking to media persons after holding talks with the protesting Hazara community in Quetta, Nisar termed the talks as successful and assured that all of their demands would be addressed.

“The terrorists cannot escape. We will go after the culprits and bring them to justice,” he said.

He said the federal and provincial governments would make Balochistan and Quetta peaceful for Hazara community which has repeatedly suffered pain and misery at the hands of terrorists.

Chaudhry Nisar, during his visit to Quetta on the directive of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said the Mastung mayhem in which dozens of innocent people were killed has made each eye tearful across Pakistan.

The Hazara community had begun its sit-in in Quetta on Wednesday and refused to bury the victims who were killed in a yet another massacre in Mastung on Tuesday evening.

Similar demonstrations were staged in other cities of the country including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

The majority of sit-ins were staged in Karachi whose main thoroughfares including portions of Sharea Faisal, University Road and main roads of North Nazimabad were blocked for traffic.