Hazara massacre protests enter third day

KARACHI: Peaceful protests against killings of Hazara community continued across Karachi and other cities of the country for the third day, the media reported on Tuesday. Protesters held placards demanding end to sectarian violence.

The Hazara comunity in Quetta has refused to bury their dead whose number rose to 90 on Tuesday.

Although the government condemned the violence, still no action has been taken against Lashkar-e-Jhangi (LeJ) who accepted responsibility of the attack.

On Monday, thousands of women refused to bury victims of a bloody bombing and a strike shut down Karachi as protesters across the country demanded protection for Shias.

Up to 4,000 women began their sit-in in Quetta on Sunday evening, a day after a bomb in the city killed 81 members of the community including nine women and two girls aged seven and nine.

The women blocked a road and refused to bury the dead until authorities took action against the extremists behind the attack, which wounded 178 people.

The bomb, containing nearly a tonne of explosives hidden in a water tanker, tore through a crowded market in Hazara Town, on Saturday evening.

It was the second deadly blast in the city in little over a month.

The sit-in continued Monday at Hazara Town and near a local station, said Wazir Khan Nasir, police chief of Quetta. 

Copyright Business Recorder, 2013

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2013