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03-01-2021
By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report
MACH/ QUETTA/ ISLAMABAD/ KARACHI: Gunmen have opened fire on a group of minority Hazara Shia Muslim coal miners after abducting them, killing 11 in the southwestern Balochistan province, a Pakistani official has said.
Moazzam Ali Jatoi, an official with the Levies Force which serves as police and paramilitary in the area, said the attack took place early on Sunday near the Mach coalfield, about 48km (30 miles) east of the provincial capital, Quetta.
Jatoi said armed men took the coal miners to nearby mountains where they opened fire on them. He said six miners died on the spot and five others were critically wounded and died on the way to hospital.
Jatoi said an initial investigation revealed the attackers identified the miners as belonging to the Hazara Shia community and took them away for execution, leaving others unharmed.
Local television footage showed security troops surrounding a desolate mountainous area diverting traffic and guiding ambulances to pick up the bodies.
Security forces were also seen spreading out in the mountains to search for the attackers.
No group has immediately claimed responsibility but Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a banned Sunni hardline group, has targeted the minority Hazara community in Balochistan province in the past.
Quetta is home to roughly 600,000 Hazara Shia Muslims, largely confined to two fortified enclaves on either side of the city.
The enclaves are ringed with high walls topped with barbed wire, and many checkpoints are manned by paramilitary personnel.
Members of the community have long complained that security restrictions have cut them off from the rest of the city, not allowing them to effectively manage businesses or send their children to school.
Balochistan faces multifaceted threats from several armed groups, including the Taliban, which have targeted Shia Muslims and nationalist groups seeking independence for the province.
Attacks against workers from other provinces, especially those working on projects initiated by China under a $62bn investment plan, are common.
On December 26, gunmen attacked a security post and killed seven soldiers in Harnai district of the province.
Sources further revealed that beside thousands of statements, press releases, handouts, claims, challenges, references, evidences, quotations and assertions of Pakistani politicians, authorities, security forces, police, rangers, secret agencies, present and former rulers and oppositions leaders even army as well as on behalf of these Pakistani claims, the “foreigners” particularly immigration authorities especially “Australian Case officers” and “Concerned Officials, accept, maintain, refer, declare and confront that now they are no 
existence of Taliban, al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jamat-e-Islami, Sipah-e-Sahaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Jaish-e-Muhammad or many dozens of terror organizations particularly anti-Shia groups in Pakistan, Pakistan has changed, peace has been restored and Shia are safe in Pakistan, they all are not only the “Real Terrorists”, the facilitators, supporters, financers, trainers and campaigners of them.
Sources firm that if the claimers will not change their attitude, mindset, behavior, thinking and decisions, they must have to face the same as Shia have been facing during the last seven decades so, they should realize the present situation because now it has been proved that there were Taliban in Pakistan, there are Taliban (as it is) in Pakistan and they will remain in Pakistan until all the said culprits will not change their midsets.
