Hindus and Christian MPAs Stage walkout from Balochistan Assembly in protest against attack on Hindus in Quetta, Pakistan

By Mohammad S.Solanki (PHP Islamabad)
Saturday, June 12, 2010

(PHOTO : Inside Balochistan Assembly, Pakistan)

(PHOTO :Balochistan Minister for Minorities Affairs Mr. Jai Parkash)

QUETTA : All three minority members of Balochistan Assembly staged a walk-out from the session of the Assembly in protest against the killing of a Hindu trader and abduction of his son from Quetta the other day.

Some members of the House also blamed Sindh for provision of less water to province, inflicting a colossal loss to the growers and province.

The session of Balochistan Assembly started on Wednesday morning with the Speaker Muhammad Aslam Bhootani in the chair after a break of one day.

Provincial Minister for Minorities, Jay Parkash, on a point of order, strongly condemned killing of a Hindu trader in Quetta and abduction of his son.

He said that members of Hindu community, particularly, traders were being kidnapped for ransoms throughout the province but so far govt had failed to arrest the perpetrators.

‘This is our motherland, our forefathers have rendered sacrifices for it’, Jay Parkash said, adding, that they had raised the issue of kidnapping of Hindu traders several occasions but all in vain.

He said that they were also the citizens of Pakistan and demanded of the govt for providing them justice and security, besides arresting the perpetrators involved in these heinous crimes.

Later on, Jay Parkash, Engineer Basant Lal Gulshan and Jaffar George staged a walk out from the House as a protest against the killing of the Hindu trader.

Provincial Minister, Engineer Zamrak Khan also condemned the killing of Hindu trader and said that Pakhtun traders were also being targeted in different towns of Mekran.

‘A trader, hailing from Pishin was also killed on Tuesday in District Kech’, he added.

He demanded that government should take strict notice of these killings and ensure the security of Pakhtun traders and ,added, that nobody could separate Baloch and Pakhtuns from each other as they had been living together for a long time.

Provincial Ministers, Jaffar Khan Mandokhel, Abdul Khaliq Achakzai and others strongly condemned the killing of Hindu and Pakhtun traders and said that Pakhtuns were being targeted in Mekran through an international conspiracy to pit both ethnic groups against each other.

They said that kidnapping for ransom had become a lucrative business in the province and stressed that stern action should be taken against criminals.

Speaker asked provincial ministers Asad Baloch and Engineer Zamrak Khan for persuading minority members to end their walk out.

Both ministers brought all three protesting members in the House