Bolan shooting kills two Hazara boys, injures two others

By Malik Siraj Akbar

QUETTA, Dec 2: At least two young Hazara boys were killed and two others were injured after unknown assailants opened indiscriminate fire on four people from Quetta who had gone to Bolan district to picnic on Tuesday night, police said.

According to Didar Ali Magsi, the sub-house officer of Bolan district, a group of young boys hailing from Quetta’s Shia-Hazara community had gone to Pir Ghaib area, a popular picnic point, to spend post-Eid vacations. They were attacked by unknown men when they were sleeping after having had dinner.  As a result, two visitors were killed and two others received injuries. Those killed were identified as Abdul Latif and Syed Ghulam Mustafa. The injured citizens, who were identified as Mehmmod-ul-Hassan and Misir Ali, were shifted to Quetta’s Bolan Medical Complex for immediate medical treatment. Their condition was reported by the doctors to be stable. All the victims were between the age of 20 to 25 years.

The dead bodies of two slain Hazara boys were handed over to their family members and brought to Quetta’s Hazara Town. The causes of the killing could not be ascertained.

“We do not rule out the possibility of target killing against the Hazaras in this particular case,” Mirza Hussain, a central leader of the Hazara Democratic Party (HDP) told Baloch Hal, “There were surely people from other ethnic groups as well to celebrate vacations at this popular picnic point. Targeting all four Hazara boys simply means it was an act of target killing the members of the Hazara tribe,” he observed.

Members of minority Shia-Hazara community in Balochistan have been under fire for the past many yeas in Quetta and its neighboring districts. Hundreds of Hazara-Shias have lost their lives in sectarian killings so far. While a banned Sunni organization, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, has been claiming responsibility for what appear to be cases of sectarian killing, these target killings have also engulfed secular leaders such as Hussain Ali Yousafi, the chairman of the HDP who was killed earlier this year in Quetta city.

No group has accepted responsibility for the killings. The police in Bolan said it had begun an investigation against unknown murderers and anticipated to make progress soon.