SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)
All Pakistani Shia leaders on Monday urged their followers to take immediate steps to defend their places of worship after the bombing of a mosque that killed 50 Shia worshipers in Shikarpur on Friday.
The attack on Shia worshippers in the city of Shikarpur in the southwestern province of Sindh prompted a wave of protests in parts of the country. The attack marks the latest setback for Nawaz Sharif, prime minister, in his efforts to improve security conditions.
“The government has proven to be utterly useless and the Shia community is very vulnerable. We need to raise a community of volunteers and scouts for security duties”, Allama Hasan Zaffar, a prominent Shia cleric and leader of Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslmeen, said in an statement.
Allama Amin Shaheedi, another prominent Shia cleric and Deputy Secretary General of Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslmeen, who has organised public protests to demand greater protection for the community, said: “The questions is, where was the police at the time of the attack? We have no protection. We have to protect ourselves. Government has been failed at all.”
Responsibility for Friday’s bombing was claimed by Jundollah, a shadowy hardline takfiri Deobandi terrorist group with a history of targeting Iran, a predominantly Shia country.
Western diplomats said the attack had exposed Mr Sharif to further criticism over the country’s security conditions, which have been in particular focus since a Taliban attack on a school in December in the northern city of Peshawar killed 150 people, mostly teenage students.
The incident has prompted criticism of Mr Sharif for his government’s failure to defend a recent constitutional amendment to establish courts led by military officers.
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