Pakistani security forces detain eight anti-Shia suspect in Quetta

Pakistani paramilitary forces say they have captured eight anti-Shia militants and seized their weapons during an operation in the southwestern city of Quetta.

Quetta, the capital of oil and mineral rich Balochistan province which borders Afghanistan and Iran, was recently hit by two terrorist suicidal and bomb attacks leaving behind nearly 200 Shia Muslims martyred.

Outlawed terrorist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) claimed responsibility for both attacks and threatened further genocide of Shias.

“Our troops raided a house in the Dasht suburb of Quetta and recovered a large quantity of arms and ammunition dumped underground in the courtyard of the house,” Colonel Maqbool Ahmad, a senior official of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, told reporters.

Ahmad, who supervised the raid, said they also detained eight militants from the house in Dasht, 25 kilometres (16 miles) south of Quetta city.

He added that the weapons cache included 120 kilograms of explosives, 1,000 explosive detonators, guns, and rocket-propelled grenades.

The arrested men have “connections with sectarian organizations and may lead us to unearth terrorists involved in terrorist activities in Quetta,” he added.

On February 16, a bomb attack targeting Shia Muslims in the main bazaar of the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta killed at least 90 people, including women and children, and injured 200 others. According to the police, most of the victims were Hazara Shias.

On January 10, a twin bomb attack at a crowded billiard hall killed more than 90 people, mostly Shia Muslims, in Quetta, which is the capital of Balochistan province.

The anti-Shia terrorist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) claimed responsibility for the two bombings in Quetta. The group was founded in 1996 by Riaz Basra as an offshoot of outlawed Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan.

On March 1, Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the outlawed LeJ has been involved in 80 percent of terrorist incidents in the country.

Following the terrorist incidents in Quetta, massive demonstrations were held across the country to denounce the violence against Shia Muslims.

The demonstrators shouted slogans against the government and criticized Pakistan’s security forces for failing to provide security to the country’s Shia Muslims.

They also denounced the Saudi Arabian policy of funding extremist groups that commit acts of terrorism and violence against Muslims in Pakistan.

In addition, the protesters demanded that the government take immediate action against the forces involved in the sectarian killings.