Pakistan city stops work to protest Shia killings
People in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta have shut down businesses in protest against frequent deadly attacks against Shia Muslims in the troubled city.
On Monday, almost all businesses and institutions, including government offices and schools, remained closed, and traffic stayed off the streets across Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan Province.
The strike was called by civil and human rights groups to protest the unabated killings of Shia Muslim in the region.
The strike comes a day after heavily-armed militants shot dead at least five members of Shia Hazara community in the volatile city
Also on late Sunday, hundreds of Shia Hazara people and activists poured onto the streets of Quetta to denounce the killings by pro-Taliban militant groups.
The protesters placed the coffins of the victims on a main road and chanted slogans against the central government in the capital Islamabad for failing to protect them. The angry demonstrators said they would sit on the road with the dead bodies until the perpetrators are arrested and brought to justice.
“We are facing genocide and the government makes only empty promises instead of providing protection,” media outlets quoted Husnain Ali, a protester at the rally, as saying.
Meanwhile, prominent Shia leaders in the regions had earlier threatened to launch a civil disobedience movement if the ongoing massacre against Shia Hazaras were not stopped.
Several incidents of targeted killing of Shia Muslims have been reported in Quetta over the past two weeks.
Quetta has seen several militant attacks against the Shia Muslims in recent years. Two separate militant attacks against Shia Hazara community in the restive city killed over 200 people in early 2013.
Massive rallies and mass sit-in protests are already being held across Pakistan over the government's failure to halt terror acts, after pistol-wielding gunmen massacred nearly 50 Ismaili Shia Muslims in the southern port city of Karachi on May 13.
The protest rallies have been held in several cities including Islamabad, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Quetta and Multan.
Reports say pro-Taliban groups have been behind most of the attacks on Shia Muslims in Pakistan.
International organizations and rights groups have urged the Pakistani government to take decisive actions against the forces involved in the targeted killings and massacre of Shia Muslims
JR/KA/HMV
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