Rehman urges PM to visit Hazaras in Quetta

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Interior Senator Rehman Malik participated in the sit-in against the Machh tragedy on Friday in Islamabad and once again urged Prime Minister Imran Khan to give up ego and visit the protesting Hazara community demanding his visit.

He said the Machh tragedy has hurt every Pakistani and it is a highly barbaric act of terrorism that has shaken the entire nation. “I have come to express my heartfelt condolence and solidarity with the families of the martyrs of the Hazara community,” he said.

He said thousands of men, women, and children are protesting along with coffins of their loved ones in an extremely harsh weather in Quetta, demanding the visit of the prime minister. He said that without any further delay, the prime minister while keeping aside his ego should reach Quetta to console the mourning community.

Malik said he was the first one who pointed out the presence of the ISIS in Pakistan years back, but successive governments have been refusing to accept its presence just as a policy. He said he has always been advocating that “rather than being in the state of denial, we should accept that Daesh is very much present in Pakistan”. He said Daesh handlers recruited over 80 thousand Pakistanis, mostly from south Punjab, and the recent ouster of Pakistani Daesh operators from Syria will be a great threat to the country.

He said the way the Hazara miners were slaughtered shows the Daesh involvement as cutting the throat is the job of the ISIS. He said he had earlier pointed out that there was a conspiracy against the Shia community. As Interior minister, he had faced the same situation when on January 10, 2013, some 130 Shia Hazaras were killed in a brutal suicide attack in Quetta.

He urged the prime minister to visit Quetta with senior members of his cabinet as the families of the martyrs are looking at him for assurance of their life protection. He demanded that the government announce a judicial commission to probe the Machh tragedy. He said it is a serious issue and there should be no politics over human tragedies and sufferings.

Malik said foreign forces are trying to cause Shia, Sunni riots in Pakistan but both the sects know well that it is enemies’ conspiracy. He said the ISIS has opened its bases in India and Afghanistan to operate in Pakistan as the ISIS has become active against the Muslim Ummah, particularly the Shia community. All Pakistanis are equal and have the same rights. He urged the government to launch action against the ISIS and its facilitators in Pakistan.