Follow Us on Google News
QUETTA: PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz arrived at the site where Shia Hazara community has been protesting the killing of 11 coal miners in Balochistan’s Machh area.
On arriving in Quetta, Bilawal and Maryam addressed the protesters along with other political leaders including Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
Earlier in the day, MWM leader Allama Syed Hashim Moosvi categorically denied that an agreement had been reached between the Hazara community and the government as their sit-in entered the fifth day refusing to bury the victims.
Sit-ins continued across the country with major arteries of cities blocked for protests. A number of roads were blocked across Karachi causing major traffic jams in the metropolis.
‘Pakistan a country where martyred have to protest’
Addressing the protestors, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has strongly criticized the PTI-led federal government, saying that Pakistan was a country where even martyred and the dead have to protest.
Bilawal deplored the state’s failure to implement the National Action Plan (NAP) for deterrence of such crimes, adding that whenever he visited the Balochistan capital, it was not to celebrate or for political reasons, but to condole with Hazaras.
“Although basic utilities like gas and electricity had become expensive in the country, but the people’s blood is cheap,” he said, adding that nearly 2,000 Hazaras had been killed since 1998, but not one of them had gotten justice.
“We call on this state that the most patriotic people in this country are sitting in front of you, if you can’t provide justice to them who you can provide justice to then?” he added.
He further said, “We want to remind you [the state] that you promised the APS kids that you will end terrorism, but you could not. You promised the implementation of the National Action Plan, but you have failed at that too.”
‘Cannot find words to express grief’
Addressing the Hazara community, PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz said that she cannot find the words to express her grief and to console the people gathered there.
“I salute you all. Each one of you is an open book, telling the story of such pain and sorrow,” he said, adding, “I ask Imran Khan, these bodies that lie here, is your ego greater than these?”
She asked whether he is not coming out of fear of criticism. “Come here and listen to the criticism and come here and share in their grief,” she added.
Maryam further said that the people were not asking for anything extraordinary. “You are that community that has been loyal to the land and have fully participated in the progress of Pakistan,” she added.
A delegation led by JUI-F leader Abdul Ghafoor Haideri is also set to leave Islamabad for Quetta to express solidarity with the mourners. Prime Minister Imran Khan, a day earlier, urged the families of Mach massacre victims to bury their loved ones.