Islamic State, aka Daesh, has claimed responsibility for an attack on Sunday that killed 11 miners from minority Shia Hazaras in Balochistan.
Reuters reported that the attack took place early in the morning in the Mach area of Bolan district, killing the miners who were in a shared residential room near the coal mine where they worked.
“The throats of all coal miners have been slit after their hands were tied behind their backs and (they were) blindfolded,” a security official told Reuters. A video clip of the victims making the rounds on social media showed three bodies lying outside the room and the rest inside in pools of blood.
The incident that shook the country drew criticism from all quarters. Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned the killings, calling them “a cowardly inhuman act of terrorism”. “Have asked Frontier Constabulary to use all resources to apprehend these killers and bring them to justice,” he said in a tweet.
Following the attack, the members of the Hazara community held a protest in Quetta. The protesters blocked the western bypass and burnt tyres to protest the killings.
It is not the first time that the minority community has faced attacks from radical Islamist outfits, such as the Taliban and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. In April, a market suicide bombing killed 18 people, half of whom were Hazaras. In 2013, three bombings killed more than 200 people in Hazara neighbourhoods in Quetta.
