(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Federal Interior Minister of Pakistan Ahsan Iqbal visited the camp of sit-in outside Balochistan Assembly where he held talks with Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen’s leader Agha Syed Mohammad Raza who is also Balochistan Law Minister but failed to convince the protesters to end sit-in being held in protest against Shia genocide and in particular recent targeted murders of Shia Hazaras.
The provincial minister and MWM leader Agha Raza who was leading the sit-in protest outside Balochistan legislature refused to end protest and told the Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal that sit-in would continue as long as Army Chief’s visit to Quetta to condole and give assurance to the heirs of martyrs for crushing action against terrorists.
Rally taken out on Alamdar Road to protest against Shia genocide
A protest rally and a public meeting were held under the aegis of the Balochistan Shia Conference at Shohada Chowk, Alamdar Road — a Hazara-dominated neighbourhood in Quetta to register protest against Shia genocide in Quetta.
They said peace is destroyed when the state becomes weak. They criticised the wrong policies which have led to such disastrous circumstances.
They lamented that over 2,000 Shia Hazaras were killed and 3,000 injured in targeted attacks in the past few years. They said their neighbourhoods have been turned into orphanages and their blood has become cheaper than water."
The protests began after two Shia Hazara were shot dead in the fourth targeted attack this month in Quetta. Two members of the community were killed and another was injured in an attack in the Western Bypass area of the city last Sunday. A shopkeeper was gunned down on April 18 while another Hazara man was killed in the beginning of the month.
“The people of Balochistan do not want roti, kapra and makaan; all we want is the right to life," former PPP lawmaker Nasir Shah, a Hazara Shia said speaking at the gathering, which was attended by members of the Hazara Democratic Party, the Balochistan National Party, the Jamhuri Watan Party, MWM leader and Balochistan Law Minister Agha Syed Mohammad Raza and others.
They said peace is destroyed when the state becomes weak. They criticised the wrong policies which have led to such disastrous circumstances.
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