This week was full of violent news. It seems civil war, tit for tat and violence against violence is the style! Security personnel have decided to curb militants with iron fists and repercussions soon appear. Several newspapers and news agencies highlighted the military actions against the terrorists in North Wazirstan on December 19 in response to an attempt by terrorist to ambush a military convoy.

By Irshad Ahmad Mughal

Persecution of the Hazara Community (Shia) in Quetta, Baluchistan continued during the week too. The families of loved ones who lost their lives in Mastung suicide bombings (Baluchistan) staged a long “sit- in” on Alamdar Road in Quetta in freezing temperatures. Around 28 innocent people were killed in this attack despite tight security arrangements on Taftan Quetta Highway.
The Hazara minority (shia) in Quetta, in Pakistan, has been the victims of Lashkar-Jangwi (ahle-hadith) with persecutions and violence. Some senior journalists says it is proxy war of Saudi Arabia (ahle-hadith) and Iran (Shia). At least 2000 Hazara men, women and children have lost their lives and more than 1000 have been injured in Quetta in recent years as the result of these types of ethnic conflicts. Finally, interior minister, Ch. Nisar Ali Khan along with his senior party members were successful in persuading the grieved party to end their two day long protest sit-in, alaong with dead bodies, and announced they would bury the corpses of the Mastung blast victims.

Another top stories highlighted in the media was the death of six levies men in Mastung in Balochistan while an equal number of policemen embraced martyrdom in Charsadda after their vehicle had come under attack.

Polio workers were also under attack in Karachi, Mansehra and Panjgur for carrying out a vaccination campaign.

Around 37 fire crackers were thrown at various public sites in Karachi, Hyderabad and Dadu in Sind, Pakistan, to create fear, panic and general harassment.

Some journalist and security advisors have said that the high wave of violence is retaliatory action of security forces in North Wazirstan and other areas of the Khyber Agency.

There are rumours that security personal have finally decided to launch wide scale operations against militants including those in North Wazirstand in Pakistan. Negations and dialogue among top officials are ongoing before launching this assault. Nawaz Sharif has already given the go head, even Imran Khan (who was not in favor of these type of operations in the past and whose party is the ruling party in Khyber Pakthunkhwa) has given approval to launch the attacks but his party should be given information about it.

Outside of this violence context, Pakistan cricket team won a sensational final test match against
Sri Lanka on 20th Jan, 2014 at Sharja to level the series 1-1.

On that better note we end this brief report.