Mass Shiite protests sweep Pakistan after deadly bombing claims 81 lives

Published time: February 18, 2013 02:04
Edited time: February 18, 2013 06:04
Pakistani Shiite Muslims women protest against yesterday's bomb attack in Quetta on February 17, 2013. (AFP Photo / Banaras Khan)

Pakistani Shiites gathered by the thousands in a unified mass protest against extremists responsible for a bombing at a crowded market that killed 81 and wounded hundreds.

­More than 1,500 Shiites protested on the streets in the eastern city of Lahore, and smaller-scale protests were held in Islamabad, Karachi, and at least 12 other cities.

Some 4,000 women began a sit-in protest in Quetta, the site of Saturday’s deadly blast. The outraged Shiites refuse to bury their dead until authorities take action against extremists responsible for the attack.

After friends and family dug through the ruins and rubble to recover corpses of loved ones, they gathered around Shiite mosques in Quetta with the bodies of 60 slain victims, debating whether to protest the bombing by refusing to bury the dead, following the same protocol as they did after January’s massacre.

"So far, we are not going home. We are not burying the dead," said Dawood Agha, a Shiite leader in Quetta.

The banned al-Qaeda-linked militant group Laskhar-e-Jhangvi, more widely-known as LeJ, has openly claimed responsibility for Saturday’s carnage, as well as January’s billiard hall blast that killed 92 and the mosque attack that claimed 24 lives.

Not a single suspect has been arrested in connection with January’s billiard blast yet, the chairman of Shia Conference told AFP.

Baluchistan secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani said authorities have arrested suspects for Saturday’s blast, but there is a large trust gap between Shiites and government officials.

"Not one month or week passes here without the killing of a member of the Hazara community," he said. "Why is the government — both central and provincial — so lethargic in protecting Shias?"

Pakistani Shiite Muslims women protest against yesterday′s bomb attack in Quetta on February 17, 2013.(AFP Photo / Banaras Khan)
Pakistani Shiite Muslims women protest against yesterday's bomb attack in Quetta on February 17, 2013.(AFP Photo / Banaras Khan)

The first two months of 2013 have claimed almost 200 victims in sectarian attacks in Pakistan.

The bomb, transported in a water tanker, exploded in the middle of a crowded marketplace in a Shiite dominated area on the edge of Quetta, the capital of the southwestern Baluchistan province.

"We all know it is LeJ," said Hasan Raza, a Shiite activist. "We want the government to act now and take action against the terrorist group." 

Saturday’s deliberate mass-casualty attack on Shiites has highlighted the extremism they face living in Pakistan, which is predominantly Sunni. Shiites account for around a fifth of the country's 180 million people.

Pakistani Shiite Muslim shout slogans during a protest reacting against yesterday′s bomb attack in Quetta, in Islamabad on February 17, 2013.(AFP Photo / Farooq Naeem)
Pakistani Shiite Muslim shout slogans during a protest reacting against yesterday's bomb attack in Quetta, in Islamabad on February 17, 2013.(AFP Photo / Farooq Naeem)
Pakistani Shiite Muslims women protest against yesterday′s bomb attack in Quetta on February 17, 2013.(AFP Photo / Banaras Khan)
Pakistani Shiite Muslims women protest against yesterday's bomb attack in Quetta on February 17, 2013.(AFP Photo / Banaras Khan)
Pakistani Shiite Muslims dig graves for yesterday′s bomb attack victims in Quetta on February 17, 2013.(AFP Photo / Banaras Khan)
Pakistani Shiite Muslims dig graves for yesterday's bomb attack victims in Quetta on February 17, 2013.(AFP Photo / Banaras Khan)

Comments (6)

The Christian American (unregistered) 18.02.2013 14:55

Do you know the difference between a crowd and a mob? A thrown rock. Every mob has a leader and because these people have adopted a mob mentality, they've given up on their individuality, their leader can get them to do things they would find unthinkable if they retained the ablity to reason as a person. There's well aimed thrown rocks all over the world today. Mob leaders single out fools to do their bidding, even commit suicide. Every country is susceptable to it's people adopting a mob mentality All that it takes is some real or manufactured fear to do it. We see it more in Muslim countries because the Muslim religion speaks to crowds more than Christianity. Pakistan is just the country we're focusing on because evil people are setting the country up for colonization. The snake said to the mouse: Come, let the two of us become one. 

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@ Appollyon (unregistered) 18.02.2013 09:43

The biggest problem on this planet is Israel, followed by the Salafi barbarians and the suicide bombing Sunnites (all friends and allies of Israel and the West).

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Danaos 18.02.2013 09:21

authorised user (unregistered) wrote in #2
cant see anyone in the larger sunni community supporting this kind of evil against any innocents never mind our brothers and sisters in the shia community. wonder who is really behind these attacks and what their objective is?

Well, the case of foreign agents playing the one muslim sect (sunnis) against the other (shiites) is very plausible.
Howeve r, further than these murders and violence, the positioning of the muslim majority of sunnis against shiites, ismailites, alevis/alawites, bektashis and others has been monitored in pretty much ALL muslims countries and this positioning is UNCONTROLLED VIOLENCE against them. In Turkey - this advertised ''westernised''''''' ''civilised'''''' muslim country after some 80 years of secularism still the alevis and bektashis are being targeted by sunnis with their mosques attacked, and particularly their women, being targetted by rape (what else...) as they are seen by sunnis as ''immoral'''.

You get the idea.

So yes, this event maybe constructed, BUT there is a BIG BUT - the treatment of other muslim sects by sunnis even in the supposedly more moderate muslim countries is despeakable.

Let alone how sunni muslims treat other religions. On the contrary Shiites, Alevis/Alawites, Bektashis and Druzes (who are anyway such a sect that cannot be described as muslim....) is far different - they tend to be much more civilized than the average sunni islam followers.

It is not accidental that Sunni Islam is allied to US-British interests around the world and we have seen it in every single place the US forces have enterred. In Iraq, in Afganistan, in Bosnia and Kosovo. Anglosaxons have been working with Sunni Islam ever since the 16th century when they created the Barbary pirates and in the 18th to 20th century when they were aiding the Ottomans genociding the christian majority then. It is an old game.

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