Two Hazara men shot dead in Quetta targeted attack

QUETTA/ISLAMABAD: Two men belonging to the Hazara community were shot dead while a third was injured in an incident of firing in Quetta’s Western Bypass area on Sunday.

Police sources said unknown miscreants opened fire and killed two people identified as Muhammad Ali and Muhammad Zaman. One person was wounded as result of firing, the sources said. The injured was rushed to Bolan Medical Complex Quetta for treatment.

Police said the victims were members of the Hazara community and that the incident appeared to be a targeted attack. The assailants escaped unhurt from the spot after the attack. Police and other law enforcement personnel reached at the spot as the investigation into the incident was initiated.

Attacks against Hazaras in Quetta have seen a spike recently with this attack being the second this week alone. A shopkeeper was gunned down in the provincial capital earlier this week while another Hazara man was killed in the beginning of April.

The Hazara community has been disproportionately targeted by sectarian violence as they are easily identifiable due to their distinctive physical appearance.

A report released by the National Commission for Human Rights last month stated that 509 members of Hazara community were killed and 627 injured in various incidents of terrorism in Quetta during the last five years.

Reuters adds: Three Hazara men were travelling together on the outskirts Quetta when two men on a motorcycle opened fire on them, killing two and wounding the third, a police official said. "It is a sectarian target killing," senior police officer Syed Attaullah Shah said.

No group has claimed responsibility for Sunday´s attack.

Meanwhile, The Patron-in-Chief of Supreme Shia Ulema Board and Chief of Tehreek Nafaz-Fiqh-e-Jafariya (TNFJ) Agha Syed Hamid Ali Shah Moosavi has strongly condemned the target killing of two persons in Quetta including senior leader of Balochistan Shia Conference Muhammad Ali Razai and termed it the result of loopholes in implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP), says a press release.

In a reaction issued from the headquarters of the Maktab-e-Tashih, here Sunday, he said there is no Sunni-Shia conflict in Pakistan but the enemy is upset on the Kashmir independence movement and the CPEC project as a result of which they desire to destabilise the motherland.

Agha Moosavi said the banned organisations are openly working with new and old names and have ultimately reached the ideological council and are participating in elections with the permission of Election Commission and joining political alliances as a result of which terrorism is getting encouragement and the sacrifices rendered by the Pakistan’s armed forces and the security forces for rooting out terrorism are partially being wasted.

Agha Moosavi demanded implementation of the NAP so as to put an end to the day-to-day incidents of target killings and terrorism in letter and spirit, the noose should be tightened around the banned organisations, strong security steps may be taken throughout the country, particularly in Balochistan, and the culprits of all incidents of terrorism may be dealt with an iron hand.