Prime Minister Imran Khan has appealed to the Hazara community members staging a protest in Quetta for the fourth consecutive day to bury their loved ones, reported 24NewsDH TV channel.
Without naming India, Imran Khan also said Pakistan’s neighbor is instigating sectarian terrorism here.
In a tweet posted on Wednesday, the prime minister said “I share your pain and have come to you before also to stand with you in your time of suffering.”
He further said “I will come again very soon to offer prayers and condole with all the families personally. I will never betray my people's trust. Please bury your loved ones so their souls find peace.”
In another tweet, Imran Khan said “I want to reassure the Hazara families who lost their loved ones in a brutal terrorist attack in Machh that I am cognizant of their suffering and their demands.”
The prime minister said “We are taking steps to prevent such attacks in the future & (u) know our neighbour is instigating this sectarian terrorism.”
CM Jam Kamal visits sit-in
Soon after the tweets by Prime Minister Imran Khan appealing the Hazara community to bury their slain coalminers, Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal reached the sit-in site at Quetta’s Western Bypass.
Addressing the protesters, Jam Kamal said that the Balochistan government is serious about resolving the issues of Hazara community and the Prime Minister and the President of Pakistan will also visit the families which are in deep shock over the Machh incident in which 11 colliers lost their lives.
However, it has been reported that Hazara community unmoved by the appeals from the highest authorities and refused to end the protest, according to the latest development.
Earlier, yet another attempt to woo the mourning protesters meet its fate as talks between the Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Zaidi and Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Zulfi Bukhari with Hazara mourners failed.
Men, women and children of Quetta's Hazara community continued protesting the massacre of 11 coalminers for a fourth consecutive day on Wednesday at Quetta’s Western Bypass along with the dead bodies of the slain colliers.
The mourners stuck to their demand that they will not bury their dead until Prime Minister Imran Khan visits them.
It is pertinent to note that three rounds of talks have failed since the protesters camped at Quetta’s Western Bypass.
In the third unfruitful round of talks, the Balochistan government was represented by Home Minister Zia Langov, Finance Minister Zahoor Buledi, Saleem Khosa aur Mobeen Khilji and before that Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and Deputy Speaker National Assembly Qasim Suri and other ministers also tried to convince the protesters to call off the protest but failed.
The protesters did not budge from their positions and continued to stage a sit-in despite harsh weather conditions and vowed they will only end the sit-in when Prime Minister Imran Khan will visit the sit-in site.
They burnt coal to keep themselves warm during the chilly nights of Quetta.
It has been reported that members of the Hazara community, as well as bereaved relatives of the colliers, were staging a sit-in to voice their grievances.
In the incident, four others were seriously wounded. Heavy contingents of police, paramilitary force and officials of the local administration rushed to the site in Machh, about 48 kilometres east of Quetta.
Police authorities said the miners were on the way to work when armed militants kidnapped them and took them to the nearby mountains before opening fire at close range.