Hazara community agrees to call off protest after assurance of Army Chief

QUETTA: Leaders of the Shia Hazara community have agreed to call off their protest over the target killings in Quetta after a meeting with Chief of Army Staff Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa on Tuesday.

Hazara women had been on hunger strike in front of the Quetta Press Club against targeted killings of the members of their community.

After Gen Bajwa arrived in the city late Tuesday evening he held a meeting with representatives of the Hazara community who have been affected badly by incidents of targeted killings.

According to the Inter-Services Public Relations, the leaders of the Hazara community met with the army chief and Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal, on Tuesday evening.

Iqbal previously had requested the Hazara community to call off the sit-in protest on Monday but was unsuccessful. The senior members of the community said that they will not call off the protest until they met with the Army chief.

Balochistan Chief Minister Abdul Quddus Bizenjo, Commander Southern Command Lt. Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa, Home Minister Sarfaraz Ahmed Bugti, Inspector General of Frontier Corps Maj. Gen. Nadeem Ahmed Anjum and IG of Balochistan police Moazzam Jah Ansari were also present in the meeting of the Army chief Gen. Bajwa with the elders of the Hazara community. ..

Gen Bajwa also paid his condolences to the families of the victims of targeted killings. He assured that the culprits will be punished severely.

According to reports the Army chief and the interior minister were briefed on the ongoing security situation in Quetta and steps taken by the provincial government and law enforcement agencies after the recent wave of targeted killings.

Previously, the Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen general secretary Allama Nasir Abbas wrote a letter to Gen. Bajwa, asking him to intervene and stop the targeted killings of Shia Hazara community’s members in Balochistan. The letter stated that an organized sectarian cleansing of Hazara people was going on in Balochistan and there was a need to put a stop to it once and for all.

It also added that other members of the minorities such as Christians are also being targeted in terrorist attacks. Despite open claims made by the terrorists that they were involved still no action being taken against them, the MWM leader said in his letter.