Quetta in focus: Police hunt down ‘two target killers’

By Shehzad Baloch
Published: April 24, 2012


CM Raisani announces half a million rupees for the police. PHOTO: FILE
QUETTA:

The city police killed two alleged target killers in an encounter near the Akhtarabad neighbourhood of Hazara Town on Monday. A police official was also injured in the clash.

Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani announced half a million rupees for the police party which took part in the operation, in addition to promising them a promotion to next rank.

Narrating details, Deputy Inspector General (DIG-Operations) Qazi Wahid said that the police signaled a car to stop near Akhtarabad for a routine search. However, the car tried to speed away, arousing suspicion. After a brief chase the police called in the Anti Terrorism Force (ATF).

The alleged militants travelling in the car opened fire at the police, critically injuring Constable Riaz. Police retaliated and in the ensuing firefight two militants were killed.

“Police have recovered six pistols, including 9mm pistols, a Russian-made grenade, seven fake registration numbers and two National Identity Cards (NICs) from the militants,” said Qazi.

‘Nefarious designs’

The bodies were later shifted to Bolan Medical Complex (BMC) for autopsy. The identity of the suspects could not be determined as investigations were still under way.

“They were target killers, who wanted to target more people in Quetta” asserted DIG Qazi.

Responding to a query, he said the recovered ID cards were either fake or seemed to have been stolen and had been sent to the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) for verification.

Six target killers have so far been arrested by the law enforcement agencies in Quetta, after strict security measures were put in place in the aftermath of the recent targeting of the Hazara community.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 24th, 2012.

Connection Between the Pakistani Military And Hazara Killings in Quetta

By Amjad Hussain

“I dont hold anybody responsible for the brutal murder of my sister, but the provincial government and the Pakistani military spy agency, ISI”, says Yazdan Salimi, a young Hazara man whose sibling was among the victims of March 29 terrorist attack in Quetta on a Suzuki van carrying Hazara commuters from one part of the capital city to another.

“People at the helm of affairs in the North Western Balochistan province of Pakistan need to be brought to dock and made accountable for their failure to provide security to ethnic Hazara minority in the capital city”, adds Salimi who is one of the thousands of the Hazara asylum-seekers who have left the Pakistani city of Quetta to take refuge in Australia due to fear of ethnic and religious persecution. Salimi mourned the death of his sister in an Australian detention centre for asylum-seekers with great despondency as he feels sorrow for being unable to see the dead face of the victim before she was laid to rest.

Like Salimi, there are hundreds of other bereaved Hazara families who have lost their loved ones in the terrorist attacks in Quetta over the the past fourteen years. These families are still waiting for the perpetrators to be nabbed and convicted. But, for them, it seems to be a forlorn hope as the government of the day in Pakistan is still unwilling to act effectively to preclude what most of the members of the affected community describe as the “systematic genocide of the Hazaras”....Continue Reading....

PkMAP protests against targetkillings in Quetta

Muhammad Ejaz KhanTuesday, April 24, 2012

QUETTA: The office bearers and activists of the Pakhtunkhawa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) took out a protest rally in the provincial capital on Monday against the target killings of members of the Hazara community in Quetta. They also denounced the killings of Pashtoons in Karachi.

The protest rally, led by provincial president of PkMAP Usman Khan Kakar, Dr Hamid Khan Achakzai, Abdul Raheem Khan Ziaratwal and others, was taken out from the central secretariat of the PkMAP and marched through various roads and streets of the city. The protestors carried out placards and banners inscribed with slogans ìstop target killings at Quetta and Karachiî.

The protestors chanted slogans against target killings and failure of the Balochistan government, demanding immediate arrests of the culprits involved in the heinous crime. One of the slogans inscribed on a banner was “Provide us security and restore peace of Quetta and Karachi”.

The protest rally of PkMAP later turned into a public meeting at Bacha Khan Chowk where the leaders of the PkMAP strongly condemned the killings of innocents people at Quetta and Karachi and demanded of the government to provide them security. They observed that the government was oblivious about the gravity of the situation, while the target killers were playing havoc on the city’s roads, they remarked.

The held the federal and provincial governments responsible of the killings of innocents people and demanded that the government should fulfill its constitutional obligations. If the government could not provide security to the life and property of the citizens then the people would be left with no other option but to press the government to step down, they added.

The leaders of the PkMAP asserted that the Pashtoons had always rendered greats sacrifices and foiled the nefarious designs and added that the Pashtoons had defeated the designs whenever conspiracies had been hatched for extremism, terrorism and sectarians.

The News

Police shoot dead ‘two sectarian killers’ in Balochistan

Protest against target killning of hazaras in Pakistan- Malmö sweden. ma...

Who is the real enemy of Pakistan? (Urdu)

Express News

Hazara man shot at, injured in Quetta

Monday, April 23, 2012  

QUETTA: A man belonging to the Hazara community was shot at and injured on McCongy Road on Sunday in what appeared to be another case of violence against Shias. According to police, the victim, identified as Sajjad Ali, was on his way when assailants on a motorbike opened fire on him. He sustained injuries and was rushed to Combined Military Hospital (CMH) for treatment. “The victim was a Shia Muslim and a resident of Marriabad on Alamdar Road, a Hazara dominated neighbourhood,” sources said. Despite strict security measures adopted by the government, sectarian attacks in the city continue unabated. staff report

Daily Times