Hazaras demand joint parliamentary session over Quetta killings

The Hazara Democratic Party (HDP) has demanded of the federal government to convene joint session of the parliament to discuss the killings of ethnic Shia Hazaras in Quetta. Addressing a press conference on Saturday, HDP Central Chairman Abdul Khaliq Hazara said that Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf should summon the intelligence agencies to brief all political forces on what he called “the genocide of Hazaras in Quetta”. “We have buried more than 1,200 people during last few years,” Hazara told reporters. He claimed that the victims of targeted killings and suicide attacks also included a large women and children. The HDP chairman clarified that his party had never made an appeal for deployment of armed forces in Quetta; rather, it has always demanded a targeted operation in the city. “There must be a quick targeted operation in Quetta,” Hazara said. He said that, despite carrying funerals every day, the HDP has never given up the democratic path. The Hazara nationalist leader lashed out at religious extremists and said his party would not allow them to gain political ground over the killings of Hazaras in Quetta. “Some religious fanatics politicised the burial of innocent Hazaras,” he said. He called upon all democratic forces of the country and civil society to break their silence and stop the killings of innocent Hazaras. AFP adds: Meanwhile, speaking to news agency AFP, the HDP chairman demanded Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ) chief Malik Ishaq, who has reportedly been detained by Punjab police under the Maintenance of Public Order law, be put on trial. “We have always been demanding arrest of all those involved in any act of sectarian violence, irrespective of their party affiliation,” said Abdul Khaliq Hazara. “Ishaq must be brought to justice and punished for involvement in violence,” he added.