Pakistan has detained 30 people in connection with an attack this week on minority Muslim Shi’ites in the southwestern city of Quetta, which killed 44 people and wounded at least 150, police said on Sunday. Police also registered a complaint by relatives of the slain Shi’ites against seven local members of an outlawed Sunni militant group whom they blamed them for the attack.
A senior police official told Reuters 30 people had been arrested so far in an extensive investigation into the massacre on Tuesday, when Shi’ites were observing Ashura, one of the holiest days in their calendar. Relatives of the Pakistani victims named seven members of the outlawed Sipah-e-Sahabah group as being involved, although police said it was too early to pin the blame on any single group. Over the weekend police released sketches of two suspects and offered one million rupees ($17,400) to anyone providing information that may lead to their capture. Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali told a news conference on Saturday the government would conduct a "very deep" investigation into the attack. Residents said army and paramilitary forces were helping the police to patrol the city, still under a curfew imposed on Tuesday to prevent rioting by Shi’ites.
| I think most of us could have guessed it would be Sipah/Lashkar e-Jhangvi. The question is whether the attacks in Quetta were coordinated with those in Iraq at the same time? |
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