QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) – Hundreds of Shiite minorities set off in southwestern Pakistan for the fourth consecutive day on Wednesday to protest the killing of 11 Shiite Hazara coal workers by the Islamic State.
Despite Prime Minister Imran Khan’s request that the miners be buried, family members insisted that they only do so when Prime Minister Imran Khan visited them in person to ensure their protection.
Residents and family members began their protest on Sunday on the outskirts of the city of Quetta after IS militants kidnapped the miners in Baluchistan province and then shot dead. Six died at the scene and five, critically injured, died on the way to a hospital.
The Sunni IS subsidiary has declared war on minority Shiite Muslims in Pakistan and Afghanistan and has carried out dozens of attacks in the two provinces since it erupted in the region in 2014.
The Hazara community in Pakistan has been targeted many times over the past few days by Sunni militant groups, including the Islamic State group, which quickly took responsibility after the abduction and murder of the miners.
According to the police video, the miners were blindfolded and their hands tied behind their backs before being shot. The attack on Sunday took place near the Machh coal field, about 48 kilometers east of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan.
Since then, police have been conducting raids to arrest the attackers.
According to Islamic tradition, funerals take place as soon as possible after death. But Shiites refused to bury the dead. They also said they would not hold funerals until the authorities arrested the killers.
Khan on Twitter on Wednesday demanded that the Hazara community bury the coal miners and said he would visit them soon.
“I want to assure the Hazara families who lost their loved ones in a brutal terrorist attack in Machh that I am aware of their suffering and their demands. We are taking steps to prevent such attacks in the future and know that our neighbor is inciting this sectarian terrorism, ‘he said, in an apparent reference to the archival neighbor India.
‘I will soon have prayed and communicated with all the families in person again. I will never betray my people’s trust. “Please bury your loved ones so that their souls can find peace,” he tweeted.
Outraged at the killings, hundreds of members of the Hazara community blocked several roads in Karachi and asked the government to seek protection and urge the authorities to arrest those involved in the killings. Government officials tried to persuade them to end their protest peacefully, officials and police said.
Shiites have also held similar sit-ins in major cities in eastern Punjab province in Pakistan, demanding justice and threatening to expand their protest if the killers are not arrested.
“We want a decisive action and arrest everyone who killed our people.” come “and ensure their protection.
Mourners sat in the middle of winter temperatures on the Western Bypass Highway in Quetta after blocking it since Sunday. They included relatives of the slain colliers who were seen attacking and crying and cursing the attackers.
‘My 18-year-old innocent son Ghulam Ali has been killed. They destroyed my world by killing my son, ‘said Bibi Hameeda, crying.
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Ahmed reported from Islamabad. Associated Press author Asim Tanveer contributed to this report from Multan, Pakistan.