Pakistan accused of failing Shias

http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Shia leaders and the governor of the south-western Pakistani province of Baluchistan said not enough had been done to tackle the threat from Sunni terrorists, including Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which claimed responsibility for the attack in Quetta. More than 160 people were also injured in the blast on Saturday, when a bomb in a water tanker ripped through a busy market in the provincial market. Human rights organisations accused the government and military of turning a blind eye to sectarian violence after a double bombing in the city last month killed 92 people, mostly from the Shia Hazara community. Aziz Hazara, vice president of the Hazara Democratic Party, said on Sunday: "The government is responsible for terrorist attacks and killings in the Hazara community because its security forces have not conducted operations against extremist groups." The two attacks suggest 2013 is going to be every bit as bloody as 2012, when more than 400 Shias were killed.Angry demonstrations in January – when dozens of bodies remained unburied for days in protest at the attacks - saw the provincial government suspended and Islamabad take control through its governor, Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi. "The terrorist attack on the Hazara Shia community in Quetta is a failure of the intelligence and security forces," he said.