Summary The death toll from Thursday’s three blasts rose to 119.
QUETTA: Hundreds of people belonging to Hazara Shia community on Saturday continued their protest against lack of protection, saying they would not bury the victims till the army takes control of the city.
Despite the biting cold, the protesters including women, children and the elderly, gathered at Alamdar Road, a Shia-dominated neighbourhood of Quetta, with the bodies of over more than 80 people killed in bomb attacks Thursday night.
The Hazara community called for removal of the provincial government and handing over the city’s control to the army for an operation to arrest the attackers.
Government officials held negotiations with leaders of the Hazara community and requested them to end the protest and bury the bodies, but they refused to do so.
"The protest will continue until Quetta is handed to the army," said Hashim Mousavi, one of the organisers from the Shia Wahdatul Muslimeen party. "The government is either incapable of bringing the situation under control or does not want to do anything," he added.
Three days of mourning have been announced in Balochistan province after the blasts in its capital claimed 119 lives, on one of the deadliest days of bombings in Pakistan in recent years.
