ISLAMABAD – Prime Minister Imran Khan has said he will visit Quetta as soon as the Hazara community buries the victims of gruesome Mach incident, adding that making the burial conditional on his visit is inappropriate.
Speaking at a ceremony in Islamabad on Friday, he said he will visit Quetta today if the slain coal miners are buried today.
The Prime Minister said the government has accepted all the demands of Hazara community and the bereaved families will be compensated and fully taken care of as they have lost their bread earners in the despicable incident; therefore, making the burial [of the dead] conditional on the prime minister’s visit is “not appropriate”.
“This is akin to blackmailing the prime minister.”
Imran Khan said he also sent his cabinet members to Hazara community to deliver a message that the government fully stands behind them.
“Nowhere in the world can you blackmail a prime minister like this. Because then [it opens the door for] every crook to stage a sit-in and demand corruption cases against them be withdrawn. This is very important.”
“The Hazara community has faced the most cruelty,” said the prime minister. “They have been persecuted in ways no other [community] has been persecuted. I have visited them and seen their fear.”
Imran Khan said the Mach incident is part of the Indian conspiracy to instigate anarchy and sectarian strife in Pakistan. The Indian plot was to murder the religious scholars of different schools of thought, the premier revealed.
He commended the intelligence agencies for foiling four major terrorist activities including one in outside Islamabad. “We have put out the fire which the enemy was conspiring to stoke through sectarianism,” he added.
