"The LeJ operates under one front or the other, and its activists go around openly shouting, 'infidel, infidel, Shia infidel' and 'death to Shias' in the streets of Quetta and outside our mosques," said Seyyed Dawood Agha, a religious leader from the Baluchistan Shia Conference. "We have become a community of grave diggers. We are so used to death now that we always have shrouds ready," he added.[B]SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association)[/B] – Moulana Amin Shaheedi, the leader of national council of Shia organisations in Pakistan criticised the army chief Major General Ashfaq Kayani over recent killings of innocent Shia people in the country. "I ask the army chief; “What have you done with these extra three years you got \[in office]. What did you give us except more death," Moulana said on Friday after the previous day bombings killed 114 people.
Most of Thursday's deaths were caused by twin attacks aimed at Shia community in the city of Quetta near the Afghan border. The Shia community leaders demanded the military to take control of Quetta to protect people from terrorists. Moulana Shaheedi said the bodies were still lying on a road. "They will not be buried until the army comes into Quetta."
For years Pakistani Shia Muslims have been the victims of terrorists and some communities are living in a state of siege, a human rights group said on Friday. "Last year was the bloodiest year for Pakistani Shias in living memory. More than 400 were killed and if yesterday's attack is any indication, it's just going to get worse," said Dayan Hasan of Human Rights Watch.
A suicide bomber detonated a bomb in Quetta followed by another car bomb which blew up 10 minutes later when the police and rescuers had arrived. 82 people were killed and 121 wounded including 9 police and 20 rescuers, in the double bomb attacks. "It was like doomsday. Bodies were lying everywhere," said police officer Mir Zubair Mehmood. The extremist Wahhabi Takfiri sect, Lashkar-e-Jangvi (LeJ) claimed responsibility for the attack in the Shia areas. There were other deadly attacks on Shias on Thursday with many killed and wounded.
The LeJ aims to impose a Sunni theocracy by bombing Shia religious processions and shooting of civilians. The LeJ has had historically close ties to elements in the security forces in Pakistan. "The LeJ operates under one front or the other, and its activists go around openly shouting, 'infidel, infidel, Shia infidel' and 'death to Shias' in the streets of Quetta and outside our mosques," said Seyyed Dawood Agha, a religious leader from the Baluchistan Shia Conference. "We have become a community of grave diggers. We are so used to death now that we always have shrouds ready," he added.
