Shia Pakistanis angry over abductions

The Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) has warned to start a countrywide protest if the 10 missing Shia Muslims abducted by security agencies were not recovered.

“The 10 missing Shias were abducted from different areas of the Karachi city within 10 days by the law enforcement agencies (LEAs),” Maulana Hassan Zafar Naqvi, leader of the MWM told reporters during a press conference at the Karachi Press Club, a Press TV correspondent reported on Tuesday.

The families of the 10 missing people appealed to Chief Justice of Pakistan Ifitkhar Muhammad Chaudhry to take action against illegal detention of the 10 men.

Since Ashura, Shia mourning day for Imam Hossein (PBUH), security forces conducted raids in Karachi, detaining several Shia Muslims without announcing any charges against the detainees.

“The forces have started to pick up Shias without any logical (legal) reason,” Zafar Naqvi added.

He accused the government of the inability to bring an end to the sectarian killings, which have claimed the lives of several people.

Mortar attacks left nine people dead in northwest Pakistan on the day of Ashura, a mourning procession commemorating the martyrdom of the third Shia Imam Hossein (PBUH).

Earlier, a powerful car bomb explosion killed at least 18 Shia Muslims and wounded 75 others in Pakistan’s troubled northwestern Hangu district.

Last year, militants carried an attack on an Ashura procession in Karachi which left 43 Shia mourners dead.

According to local sources, more than 2,000 Shia Muslims have been killed in Pakistan’s Kurram Agency since the beginning of a violent campaign against Shias by pro-Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militants in 2007.

As the pro-Taliban anti-Shia groups stretch the campaign towards the southwestern parts of the country, Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, has witnessed several instances of violence directed against the Hazara Shia community in recent months.

Punjab in recent months has also seen a series of violent attacks against Shias, which make up one-third of Pakistan’s population of 160 million.