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Troops deployed following sectarian attack in Quetta
DAWN.COM | Balochistan | Troops deployed following sectarian attack in Quetta
Amanullah Kasi
Monday, 26 Jan, 2009 | 07:30 PM PST |
Paramilitary soldiers patrol on a street during a protest by supporters of the Hazara Democratic Party during a protest against the killing of their leader, Ghulam Hassan Yousufi, in Quetta on January 26. - AFP
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QUETTA: Paramilitary troops were deployed on monday in Quetta to quell violent protests against the killing of a Shiite Muslim politician, police said.
Gunmen riding on a motorbike shot dead Hussain Ali Yousufi, a prominent Shiite figure, in an attack claimed by a banned Sunni extremist group.
‘The Frontier Corps (FC) has been called to assist local police control the law and order situation,’ says senior police official Wazir Khan Nasir.
He said police were questioning at least 18 people arrested for suspected links to the assassins following the second sectarian attack in Quetta in less than two weeks.
The FC fanned out across the city centre after hundreds of protesters took to the streets and turned violent, setting ablaze vehicles and smashing the windows of a bank in the main boulevard where Yousufi was killed.
‘Police launched tear gas shells and baton-charged the protesters in a bid to prevent any untoward incident and disperse them,’ Nasir said.
At least 12 people were wounded, seven when protesters in the crowd opened fire, Nasir said.
Residents said the situation was returning to normal as dusk fell. Shops remained closed, however, and traffic was thin in the city.
Monday's drive-by shooting took place on Jinnah road in Quetta, the capital of gas-rich Baluchistan province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.
Yousufi, who led the Hazara Democratic Party, a predominantly Shiite movement, was shot as he got out of his car outside a travel agency and died on the way to hospital.
The banned Sunni extremist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) claimed responsibility for the killing in a telephone call to the local press club.
‘We claim responsibility for this attack,’ said the caller, who identified himself as Ali Haider, an LJ spokesman.
Meanwhile, Hazara Democratic Party on Tuesday has given shutter down strike in city and would mourn the assassination of party’s chairman Hussain Ali Yousufi for 40-days.
Speaking at emergent press conference at the civil hospital Monday, the secretary general of HDP Abdul Khaliq Hazara strongly condemned the government and police lukewarm policy to protect the Hazara tribesmen that were targeted by the terrorists.
Abdul Khaliq said neither we would accept any condolence or excuse from government nor we would protest before the incompetent government adding that party leader would lay to rest on Tuesday morning in Hazara graveyard.
He claimed that terrorists’ wants to create Hangu and Swat like situation in Quetta but if the democratic political parties join hands than collectively we could foil the conspiracy of the terrorists who wants to push the city towards civil war.
DAWN.COM | Balochistan | Troops deployed following sectarian attack in Quetta
Amanullah Kasi
Monday, 26 Jan, 2009 | 07:30 PM PST |
Paramilitary soldiers patrol on a street during a protest by supporters of the Hazara Democratic Party during a protest against the killing of their leader, Ghulam Hassan Yousufi, in Quetta on January 26. - AFP
________________________________________________________________
QUETTA: Paramilitary troops were deployed on monday in Quetta to quell violent protests against the killing of a Shiite Muslim politician, police said.
Gunmen riding on a motorbike shot dead Hussain Ali Yousufi, a prominent Shiite figure, in an attack claimed by a banned Sunni extremist group.
‘The Frontier Corps (FC) has been called to assist local police control the law and order situation,’ says senior police official Wazir Khan Nasir.
He said police were questioning at least 18 people arrested for suspected links to the assassins following the second sectarian attack in Quetta in less than two weeks.
The FC fanned out across the city centre after hundreds of protesters took to the streets and turned violent, setting ablaze vehicles and smashing the windows of a bank in the main boulevard where Yousufi was killed.
‘Police launched tear gas shells and baton-charged the protesters in a bid to prevent any untoward incident and disperse them,’ Nasir said.
At least 12 people were wounded, seven when protesters in the crowd opened fire, Nasir said.
Residents said the situation was returning to normal as dusk fell. Shops remained closed, however, and traffic was thin in the city.
Monday's drive-by shooting took place on Jinnah road in Quetta, the capital of gas-rich Baluchistan province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.
Yousufi, who led the Hazara Democratic Party, a predominantly Shiite movement, was shot as he got out of his car outside a travel agency and died on the way to hospital.
The banned Sunni extremist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) claimed responsibility for the killing in a telephone call to the local press club.
‘We claim responsibility for this attack,’ said the caller, who identified himself as Ali Haider, an LJ spokesman.
Meanwhile, Hazara Democratic Party on Tuesday has given shutter down strike in city and would mourn the assassination of party’s chairman Hussain Ali Yousufi for 40-days.
Speaking at emergent press conference at the civil hospital Monday, the secretary general of HDP Abdul Khaliq Hazara strongly condemned the government and police lukewarm policy to protect the Hazara tribesmen that were targeted by the terrorists.
Abdul Khaliq said neither we would accept any condolence or excuse from government nor we would protest before the incompetent government adding that party leader would lay to rest on Tuesday morning in Hazara graveyard.
He claimed that terrorists’ wants to create Hangu and Swat like situation in Quetta but if the democratic political parties join hands than collectively we could foil the conspiracy of the terrorists who wants to push the city towards civil war.
