Thousands of Pakistani Shia mourn miners killed in attack claimed by ISIS

Balochistan (AFP) – Thousands of mourners from a minority Shia community in Pakistan on Monday protested alongside the bodies of miners killed in an attack claimed by ISIS extremist group.

The 10 miners were kidnapped before dawn on Sunday as they slept near the remote coal mine in the southwestern mountainous Machh area – 60 kilometers southeast of Quetta city, local government official Abid Saleem said.

Up to 2,500 protesters gathered with eight of the bodies in coffins and blocked a bypass on the outskirts of Quetta, capital of oil and gas-rich Balochistan province, demanding justice.

“We will not end our protest until the arrest of all the assassins,” chief of Balochistan Shiite Conference, Agha Daud, told AFP.

“The latest wave of killings will spread to other cities including Quetta if a decisive action is not taken at this stage,” he added.

Security officials who did not want to be named told AFP the attackers first separated the miners before tying their hands and feet and taking them into the hills to kill them. At least four were beheaded, they added.

Two of the miners were Afghans and their bodies have been sent to Afghanistan for burial, a local security official told AFP.

Officials on Monday clarified ten people had died in the attack, revising a previous death toll of 11.

The ISIS extremist group claimed the attack, according to SITE Intelligence, which monitors extremist activities worldwide.

Ethnic Hazaras make up most of the Shia population in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan – the country’s largest and poorest region, rife with ethnic, sectarian and separatist insurgencies.

They have proven to be particularly vulnerable with their distinct Central Asian features making them easy targets for radical militants who consider them heretics.

Pakistani officials have long denied the presence of ISIS in the country, but the group has claimed a number of attacks in the past including a bombing at a vegetable market in 2019.

Though Pakistan’s mines are notorious for poor safety standards, such attacks against miners are rare.

Pakistan has long been a cauldron of unrest and sectarian violence, with the official Islamic Republic home to myriad sects of Islam and religious minorities that have been targeted by violent extremists for decades.