LAHORE – PML-Likeminded Balochistan chapter President Mukarrum Zehri on Monday strongly condemned the killings of Hazara people in a terrorist hit in Quetta, and blamed the government for utter failure in discharging its duty of protection of the citizens.
Although generally all the Shias were the target of terrorists, the Persian-speaking people of this community were particularly being targeted, while the government till date had adopted no measure to ensure their safety, despite the fact that it was not the first such incident, Zehri told The Nation over the telephone. The Likeminded leader said a number of terrorist attacks had taken place in the past, wherein the Shias were the target. He expressed concern that neither the federal nor the provincial government had taken notice of this fact and tried to fathom the motive behind the killings of the Persian-speaking Shias.
Zehri said after the killing of more than 80 people of the Hazara community on January 10 this year, the government should have initiated measures to curb the recurrence of such incidents, but then the Governor’s Rule was enforced in Balochistan to appease the aggrieved people, while no concrete step was taken to root out the menace.
Zehri said the people of Balochistan asked the federal government why it did not regard them as human beings and left them at the mercy of terrorists and miscreants.
He said over the last many years, the situation in Balochistan had been smouldering due to the acts of terrorism. If the government continued to sleep over this gory situation, there would be no time to control it and set things right, he said while asking the government to wake up and take immediate stock of the situation.
Zehri said the absence of government’s writ was fast disappointing the people of Balochistan about the rulers who as such could become the first target of the agitated people if they ran out of patience and failed to get any other remedy to their problem.
Mukarrum said the Baloch people were as loyal to the country as anyone else, yet apathy of the rulers towards their protection would make them disenchanting with the government.