Imran Khan calling protesting Hazaras 'blackmailers' an insult to coal miners: PPP leader Sherry Rehman

Islamabad [Pakistan], January 9 (ANI): Reacting sharply to Prime Minister Imran Khan's comments that the Hazara protesters were 'blackmailing' him, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) vice president Sherry Rehman said that his statement was 'an insult to the corpses of the slain coal miners'.
Rehman said that the 'egoistic' and 'ruthless' premier has set the worst example, who thinks that people asking him to fulfil their just demands are blackmailing him, Geo News reported.
"He has proved that he is not only incompetent but also ruthless... This fascist prime minister has no empathy for the people... The only brother of six sisters is dead; they have no man left in their family... Does the prime minister still think that their demand is unjust?" she said.
The PPP leader further said that the people of the Hazara community have been calling on the country's prime minister and not Imran Khan as an individual.
"Imran Khan can be Bani Gala's prime minister, but not of the country," she said.
Earlier, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice president Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Friday slammed Prime Minister Imran Khan for suggesting that the demonstrators were "blackmailing" him.
Earlier today, the prime minister was widely criticised on social media when, amidst countrywide protests and rising political pressure, he suggested that the protesters were "blackmailing" him by refusing to bury their loved ones until he visits them, Dawn reported.
"We have accepted all of their demands. [But] one of their demands is that the dead will be buried when the premier visits. I have sent them a message that when all of your demands have been accepted [...] you don't blackmail the prime minister of any country like this," Khan said on Friday while speaking at an event here.
On Sunday, unidentified gunmen stormed a coal mine in Machh town near Quetta, pulling out ethnic Hazaras, members of Pakistan's Shia minority community, from their homes and opening fire on them.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack. Following the deadly attack, protests erupted in the region with the kin of the victims refusing to bury the dead until the government meets their demands.
The protestors have held several rounds of negotiations with members of Khan's cabinet, including Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed, but to no avail. (ANI)