ISLAMABAD:
SC has directed to Baluchistan government not to keep apart and separate a particular party or sect in Quetta and to catch the ‘actual perpetrators’ of the attacks on the Shia Hazaras there.
A three-judge bench was hearing a suo motu case on the attacks on Quetta’s Shia Hazaras. On February 16, a bomb blast in Hazara Town killed around 90 people, and came just over a month after twin blasts left over 100 people dead – most of them from Hazara. Both attacks were claimed by the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
“The militants of Sunni Tehreek have dissented after the Quetta police and Frontier army corps arrested their men in an operation in the case of the Hazara Town killings. We fear there could be more sectarian violence if any [sect] is targeted,” Nasir Ali Shah, a Pakistan People’s Party MNA from Quetta, told the court.
“Action being taken by the provincial authorities may lead to further violence and unrest in the city. It will create more problems for even the Hazaras,” he added.
A representative of Quetta’s Hazaras said they were not against any party or sect – the families of the victims only want justice and an operation against the actual culprits.
Meanwhile, the court rejected a report from the provincial government, submitted by Azam Khan Khattak Advocate General of Balochistan .
The bench directed the Balochistan chief secretary, home secretary, Police IG and FC IG to furnish a fresh, comprehensive report by March 6.
According to Advocate general Report all provincial city were being thoroughly checked and five entry routes to Hazara Town were closed off in a bid to avert further attacks.
However, an unimpressed Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed said, “What concrete steps have been taken so far if even scanners have not been installed to observe vehicles loaded with volatile material?”
