Thousands of Hazara community members along with families and relatives of ten slain miners, who were shot dead in Mach area of Kachi district on Sunday, continue their sit-in on Quetta’s Western Bypass with dead bodies on the fifth consecutive day (Thursday).
Women, children and elderly persons are present in the sit-in. The protesters have vowed that their demonstration will continue until Prime Minister Imran Khan’s arrival, and dialogue will now only be held with the premier.
All previous attempts by the federal and provincial government to persuade the protesting Hazara community members to call off sit-in and bury their loved ones have been failed.
Earlier on Wednesday, Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan, Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Zaidi and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Zulfi Bukhari met the protesting families of miners and persuade them to call off sit-in. However, the protesters do not seem willing to end the protest and vowed to continue their sit-in until Prime Minister Imran Khan arrives in Quetta.
Addressing a press conference along with Ali Zaidi and Zulfi Bukhari, Jam Kamal urged the protestors to not make burial of slain coal miners conditional with arrival of PM Imran Khan.
He said that government worked hard in past 2.5 years to establish sense of brotherhood in the province and law and order situation remained relatively better in Balochistan; however, enemies of country don’t like this unity between people and want to spread unrest in the country.
Agha Raza, one of the organizers of the sit-in said that the sit-in was not organized by anyone, adding, “We are the voice of the people and the sit-in was called at the request of the families of the slain miners.”
He said that the families of slain miners were voluntarily sitting with the bodies and vowed to continue their sit-in until Prime Minister Imran Khan visits Quetta and make an announcement.
On the occasion, Ali Zaidi said that enemies of state are involved in such activities as people like Indian spy Kulbhushan Yadav were also arrested from here.
On the other hand, the government’s representatives failed to convince participants of the protest to call off their sit-in.
On Tuesday, a government delegation comprising Deputy Speaker National Assembly Qasim Suri, Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Zaidi and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis, Zulfi Bukhari visited the protesters camp and urged the protesters to call off their protest so that the bodies could be laid to rest.
The negotiations of the families of the victims remained unsuccessful with the government delegation as the protesters reiterated their demand that Prime Minister Imran Khan should come to Quetta personally to meet with the bereaved families of the victims.
On Monday, negotiations between Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and the families of the victims remained unsuccessful as the protesters were dissatisfied despite the minister’s assurance of serving justice.
Some armed men took the coal miners belonging to Hazara community to nearby mountains in Machh and opened fire and killed 10 of them. After news of the incident broke, security agencies arrived at the coal mine and cordoned off the area and collected evidences.
Follow the PNI Facebook page for the latest news and updates.
