Machh incident: Hazara protesters refuse to end Quetta sit-in despite Centre’s assurance

QUETTA: The Hazara community members continued their protest against the Machh incident for a second consecutive day despite the federal government’s assurance to the affected families of action against culprits, ARY News reported.

As the protest against the killings continued, Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad arrived in the provincial capital and met the affected families.

Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad also announced compensation for the families of those who were killed in Balochistan’s Machh area. The protesting members of Hazara community demanded PM Imran to visit them.

Sheikh Rasheed assured the protesters that he would arrange their meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan within four days.

Talking to the Hazara community members and the bereaved families at a protest camp in Quetta, Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad assured them of justice. He said that all the culprits involved in the incident will be brought to justice at all costs. He also expressed condolences with the bereaved families.

The interior minister said that the federal and the provincial governments would pay Rs1 million and Rs1.5 million respectively as compensation for each individual killed in the incident. He said that the families of those who were gunned down in Machh incident would receive Rs2.5 million each.

Members of the Hazara community, as well as bereaved relatives of the colliers killed in the Machh massacre, took to roads in Balochistan’s capital city Sunday afternoon to stage sit-ins and voice their grievances.

Several roads in Quetta were blocked as protests erupted hours after at least 11 colliers were shot dead by armed men who stormed the Machh coalfield in Balochistan’s Bolan district on Sunday morning, took the miners to nearby mountains, and opened fire.

Earlier on January 3, Prime Minister Imran Khan had condemned the killing of eleven coal miners in Balochistan’s Machh area and directed the FC to use all resources to apprehend the culprits behind the shooting incident.

“The condemnable killing of 11 innocent coal miners in Machh Balochistan is yet another cowardly inhumane act of terrorism,” he had written on his official Twitter handle.