Hazara community for operation against killers

our correspondent
Saturday, October 15, 2011

ISLAMABAD: Hazara community on Friday called for a targeted operation against terrorists allegedly being protected by certain political elements in Quetta, who were involved in a series of executions of Hazara pilgrims and labourers.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik informed the visiting delegation of Hazara community from Quetta that 10-15 persons were involved in execution of Hazaras and they would not be spared now.

The minister was not available for his views on the matter. He has been asked by the president to visit Quetta and review security situation there and ensure protection to Hazaras. The minister promised to the visitors, who called on him here, that he would focus on flushing out terrorist elements from Quetta, as previously he was hectically engaged in controlling target killings in Karachi.

Hazara Democratic Party (HDP) President Abdul Khaliq Hazara, who was also part of the delegation, when approached for comments on the burning issue, told The News that within a day or two, culprits could be located and nabbed. “Areas falling in the jurisdiction of three police stations, located in Shalkot, New Saryab and Brewery are safe havens for the killers, as the Inspector General of Police is also helpless here,” he charged and said they had informed both the president and the interior minister about this bitter fact.

HDP president pointed out that the areas in jurisdiction of these police stations were sparsely populated and it was quite easy to have an eye on the movement of criminal elements. “We have credible information that the perpetrators live in these areas and freely go out, gun down innocent people and then return home despite the presence of three check posts along the road, leading to Mastung,” he noted. He charged the provincial government as well as the Quetta administration had been paralysed and as a result no one was being questioned or held responsible for these glaring security lapses and the killers were making their escape good.

Abdul Khaliq contended despite knowing the incidents of killing were taking place in a part of Mastung, the native district of chief minister Balochistan, no sincere effort was made to check this bloody trend.

Asked what the president said to them when they explained to him their ordeal, Abdul Khaliq noted “the president expressed his concern and regretted all this was happening during his tenure as head of the state”. The delegation, he noted, also apprised the president of growing sense of insecurity among Hazara community after no arrests were made and no heads were rolled after repeated massacres of Hazaras.

THE NEWS