Protests over the killing of 11 members of Shia Hazara minority coal miners by radical Islamic State militants on Sunday has spread to other cities in Pakistan, including the economic powerhouse of Karachi.
Officials, as quoted by the international press, said that there were sit-ins in at least 19 locations in the sprawling southern metropolis, Flights were delayed because access to the airport had been affected.
The protesters have asked Prime Minister Imran Khan to visit Quetta, where demonstrators have kept up a five-day-long vigil alongside coffins carrying the victims’ bodies, blocking a major highway.
The gruesome killings, near the coalfields they worked, were filmed and later posted online by Islamic State, The Afghanistan consulate in the city of Quetta said seven of the victims were Afghan, and asked Pakistani authorities to repatriate three of the bodies on Tuesday.
Khan has dispatched three cabinet ministers to persuade the protesters in Quetta to disperse, to no avail. “I share your pain & have come to you before also to stand with you in your time of suffering,” Khan tweeted on Wednesday. “I will come again very soon to offer prayers and console with all the families personally.”
Leaders of Pakistan’s two largest opposition parties, Maryam Nawaz and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, were scheduled to visit the Quetta sit-in on Thursday.
As many as 2000 Hazaras have been killed since 1998 in Pakistan and blatant discrimination against them in government jobs or societal standings continue to inflict them.