Pakistani Shia Muslims: ‘We’re tired of carrying loved ones’ corpses’

KARACHI, Pakistan (AhlulBayt News Agency) - We are tired of lifting the bodies of our loved ones, said Kabir Ali, who was protesting against the police officials who reportedly allowed and gave protection to a rally by the anti-Shia terrorist group of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) [renamed from Sipah-e-Sahaba] at Guru Mandir on Saturday.

The group, a rehash of the banned anti-Shia Sipah-e-Sahaba, is reportedly a proscribed organisation but continues to maintain a public presence.

Later the same day, five Shiite Muslims including a woman and three brothers were killed and half a dozen others wounded in a brazen gun attack apparently motivated by sectarian hatred in a house at Nazimabad No 4 where a private majlis (Muharram mourning ceremniy) for women was being held.

Several members of the civil society staged a sit-in before the Sindh IG office on Sunday noon, demanding the suspension of the SHO or the SSP under whose supervision the ASWJ held the rally on Saturday.

Ali said that they demand the immediate suspension of the police officials who allowed the ASWJ rally. He claimed that in the same rally, ‘Shia kaafir (Shias infidels)’ slogans were chanted.

According to Ali, they were informed by an official at the IG office that nothing could be done as it was the IG’s day off. Then, he said, the police manhandled the protesters, shoved them in their vans and threw them in front of the Karachi Press Club (KPC). The officers told them to protest at KPC and not the IG office.

He said that they will stage another protest outside the IG’s office [later in the night] if their demands are not met. “Either they should arrest us or suspend the police officials who allowed the rally to be held,” he said.

Meanwhile, Imamia Students Organisation (a Shiite Muslim students' organisation in Pakistan), which was also protesting outside the KPC against the targeted killing, has also demanded the same.

ISO member Ahmed Iqbal Rzivi, said that in several security related sessions with the chief minister they have asked why banned organisations are supported when they hold rallies in the city. To such questions, the CM is always silent, he said.




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