Pakistan’s Hazara Muslims keep sit-in going after Quetta bombing

Hazara Shia Muslims have held the third straight day of a sit-in in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta to demand better security in the wake of a terrorist attack that killed two dozen people at a market there.

Hazara Shia Muslims have held the third straight day of a sit-in in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta to demand better security in the wake of a terrorist attack that killed two dozen people at a market there.

Police in the capital of Baluchistan province said there were about 200 protesters in Sunday rally, blocking the key arterial Western Bypass leading into the city. The mourners include women and children. They have set up camps and burn wood to keep warm at night.

“We’ve lost hundreds of our loved ones in the last 10 years,” said Tahir Hazara, the sit-in organizer.

In the southern port city of Karachi, dozens of Hazara Muslims demonstrated similarly, with some of them holding signs that read, “Shia lives matter.”

A rally was held by human rights activists in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore to condemn the violence against Hazaras.