Quetta grieved day after blast

ISLAMABAD - A day after a deadly blast targeting a Shia procession killed 73 people and injured over 150 others in Quetta, the Pakistani city Saturday wore a completely deserted look, media reports said.

On a shutdown call by Balochistan Shia Conference, all markets were closed in Quetta, capital of Balochistan province. The representative organisation of Shia community has also called for 40 days’ mourning to condemn the attack.

Hardly a few pedestrians were seen walking around. All the educational institutions remained closed and there was no traffic on the roads. Heavy security arrangements have been made in sensitive areas to ward off any further threat.

The provincial government has imposed a ban on all religious gatherings with immediate effect. “All such gatherings and processions will now be held at specific points,” a handout issued by the home department said.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik has also called for stopping religious activities in the open to check terrorist activities.

Balochistan’s Inspector General of Police Malik Muhammad Iqbal has said that the participants of the procession deviated from their route which made it impossible to give them proper security. However, Shia community leaders contested the accusation and alleged that the police had failed to provide adequate security.

“It is the failure of the government. We will not stop taking out these processions on the orders of the government,” leading Shia cleric Moulana Abbas Kumeli said.

“It is a conspiracy to trigger sectarian violence in the country,” he said, adding that Shias and Sunnis needed to unite against terrorism that was destabilising the country.

Meanwhile, a mass funeral of 45 victims of Friday’s blast was held at Hazara graveyard in Quetta. Other bodies have been dispatched to their ancestral villages for burial.

The treatment of the injured is continuing in various city hospitals and nobody is being allowed access to ensure security.

(Awais Saleem can be contacted at ians.pakistan@gmail.com)