Prime Minister Imran Khan yesterday once again appealed to the Hazara community to bury those killed in the attack in Balochistan’s Mach area, calling on them to refrain from “blackmailing the premier”.
Speaking at the launching ceremony of the Special Technology Zones Authority in Islamabad, he said the government had assured the protesters that they will be compensated.
“We have accepted all of their demands. [But] one of their demands is that the dead will be buried when the premier visits. I have sent them a message that when all of your demands have been accepted [ ] you don’t blackmail the prime minister of any country like this.
“Anyone will blackmail the prime minister then,” he said, adding this included a “band of crooks” in apparent reference to the Pakistan Democratic Movement. “This blackmail has also been ongoing for two-and-a-half years.”
The prime minister said the protesters were informed that he will visit once they bury those slain in the attack. “I am using this platform to say that if you bury them today, I will go to Quetta to meet the families of the deceased.
“This should be clear. All of your demands have been met but you can’t impose a condition which has [no logic]. So first, bury the dead. If you do it today then I guarantee you that I will come to Quetta today.”
Khan’s remarks come as Balochistan’s Hazara community continued its protest for the sixth straight day yesterday, refusing to bury those who were brutally killed over the weekend.
On Sunday, armed attackers had slit the throats of 11 miners in a residential compound near a mine site in Balochistan’s Mach coalfield area, filming the entire incident and later posting it online. The gruesome attack was claimed by the militant Islamic State group.
Since then, thousands of Hazaras have staged a protest along with coffins containing the miners’ bodies in the western bypass area in Quetta, while members of the community have also held protests in other cities across the country.
Braving the biting cold, the mourners, including women and children, have refused to leave until the premier visits and the killers are brought to justice.
At the start of his address, the premier stated the Hazara community has faced “the most cruelty”. He said that the killing of the 11 coal miners in Mach was part of a conspiracy that he has been highlighting “since March”.
“I had informed my cabinet and then gave public statements on this: India is trying its level best to spread chaos in Pakistan,” he said, adding that this was focused on fanning the flames of sectarianism.
“I laud our intelligence agencies on the fact that they thwarted four major terrorist events. Despite this, a high profile Sunni aalim (scholar) was killed in Karachi [ ] with great difficulty we managed to quell the flames of a sectarian divide.”
He added that as soon as the Mach incident took place, he first sent Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid and then two federal ministers Ali Haider Zaidi and Zulfi Bukhari to speak with the mourners and assure them that the government stood with them.
“We know, especially myself, the kind of cruelty they have faced.”
Addressing a news conference a little while later, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid said the premier would travel to Quetta to meet with the grieving families as soon as the victims were laid to rest.
Maryam criticises PM for describing it as ‘blackmail’
Maryam Nawaz, daughter of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and vice-president of Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N), yesterday once again hit out at Prime Minister Imran Khan for suggesting the protesting Hazaras were “blackmailing” him.
Speaking at a press conference here, she said the PM had admitted today that he was not going to Quetta “not because of a security threat but ego [and] his stubbornness”.
“The nation wants to know what was the problem which prevented you from going and putting your hand on their heads. If this was due to obedience (an oblique reference to the country’s powerful security establishment), then the nation wants to know is obedience more important than the people’s lives?” she said.
“If this is superstition then tell the nation so [it] knows the lives of 220 million people are not in the hands of any person or government but decided through superstition.
“If this is insensitivity and ruthlessness then tell the nation so we know not to look towards you in crisis and [know that] you won’t come and call innocents blackmailers,” the PML-N leader added.
Maryam Nawaz meeting with the mourning Hazara community during a sit-in at the eastern bypass on the outskirts of Quetta on Thursday. (AFP)
