Shia Muslims hold rallies in Pakistan against targeted killings

Islamabad [Pakistan], Jan. 30 (ANI): Shia Muslims held rallies across Pakistan's southern Sindh province last week to protest against a recent upsurge in violence against their community. Protestors took to streets across Sindh province on Friday against what they described as the incompetence of the federal and provincial governments in controlling terrorism in Pakistan. People expressed anger over government's double standards in the fight against terror. More than 30 Shia Muslims have fallen prey to sectarian targeted killings in less than a week in the country. Recently, a Quran scholar, Mohammad Quazim was gunned down in Karachi. Mirza Yousuf Hussain, a Shia scholar told Iran's Press TV that after an embracing defeat in Syria "these Takfiri terrorists"are coming back to Pakistan to demolish Prophet Muhammad's progeny. He expressed surprise over law enforcement agencies in Pakistan interrogating pilgrims who recently came back from Sayyidah Zaynab, the mosque which contains the grave of Zaynab, the granddaughter of Prophet Muhammad. Hussain accused them of helping the House of Saud (Saudi Royalty) and there proxies in Pakistan. "The double standards of the government for good and bad terrorists has already caused Pakistan a lot on international stage as nobody is taking them seriously," he said. He accused Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan of shaking hands with killers of their community. Khan, however, defended his meetings with leaders of proscribed organisations saying that banned sectarian organisations could not be equated with banned terrorist groups. (ANI)