Pakistanis Protest the Killing of 86 Shiites

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/12/world/asia/pakistanis-protest-the-killing-of-86-shiites.html

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ISLAMABAD — Protesters and distraught family members of 86 Shiites from the Hazara ethnic group killed in two bomb blasts on Thursday in the southwestern city of Quetta braved biting cold to stage a sit-in on Friday, refusing to bury their dead till the Pakistani Army took control of the city to provide them with security.

“I ask the army chief: What have you done with these extra three years you got in office?” a bitter Maulana Amin Shaheedi, a senior Shiite leader, was quoted as saying by local news media. “What did you give us except more death?”

In a telephone interview on Friday night, hours after the protest started, another leader, Nadir Ali, said, “Right now, it is raining in Quetta and the temperature is minus two centigrade.” As of midnight, the group was still in place.

There was no immediate response from the country’s powerful army or its chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan Province, has been ravaged by a vicious cycle of sectarian violence in recent years. Thursday’s toll was one of the highest in 14 years of violence that have left hundreds of Hazaras dead. The dual suicide bombing on Thursday, like most of the attacks on Hazara Shiites, was claimed by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni militant group with strong links to the Taliban.

Mr. Ali criticized city and provincial authorities for failing to arrest the attackers. “They are not taking any action,” he said.

Shiites leaders also expressed shock that no high-ranking government official visited the grieving families to offer support or any sense of consolation. The chief minister of the province has often been criticized for not expressing support for Hazaras.

Local television networks gave little coverage to the protest by the grieving families. The apathy was widely condemned on Twitter, the social networking service.

But Geo TV, a private television network, broadcast images of protesters, which included women, children and elderly men, sitting by the roadside. Many held candles.

“This is grave injustice,” Mr. Ali said. “We have lost confidence. There is no other way expect that the army comes and takes over. Our people are killed and no action is taken by the police or paramilitary troops. We want the army to take control now. What alternative is left?” he asked.