Pakistan's Hazara Muslims keep sit-in going after Quetta bombing
Hazara Shia Muslims have held the third straight day of a sit-in in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta to demand better security in the wake of a terrorist attack that killed two dozen people at a market there.
Police in the capital of Baluchistan province said there were about 200 protesters in Sunday rally, blocking the key arterial Western Bypass leading into the city. The mourners include women and children. They have set up camps and burn wood to keep warm at night.
"We've lost hundreds of our loved ones in the last 10 years," said Tahir Hazara, the sit-in organizer.
"The government failed to protect our community."
"Terrorists are free to target us."
"Stop killing Hazaras." And "Down with terrorism and sectarianism."
Those were the slogans the sit-inners chanted.
In the southern port city of Karachi, dozens of Hazara Muslims demonstrated similarly, with some of them holding signs that read, "Shia lives matter."
A rally was held by human rights activists in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore to condemn the violence against Hazaras.
The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) terrorist group, which has targeted the Hazara community in the past, claimed responsibility for the April 12 attack in Quetta. The bloodshed occurred two days after authorities freed Ramzan Mengal, a top leader of the banned Takfiri terrorist group.
Shia Muslims of the Hazara minority frequently come under attack by terrorists active in Baluchistan.
In 2013, three separate bombings killed more than 200 people in different Hazara neighborhoods.
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