Don't blackmail me: Imran Khan tells protesting Hazara community members
Islamabad: PM Imran Khan on Friday targeted the protesting Hazara community members, who are demonstrating for the past several days over the killing of the coal miners in Machh region by terrorists on Sunday, and said they should not 'blackmail' him.
He asked the members to bury those killed in the attack in Balochistan.
"We have accepted all of their demands. [But] one of their demands is that the dead will be buried when the premier visits. I have sent them a message that when all of your demands have been accepted [...] you don't blackmail the prime minister of any country like this," Khan was quoted as saying by Dawn News.
"Anyone will blackmail the prime minister then," he said, adding that this included a "band of crooks" in apparent reference to the Pakistan Democratic Movement. "This blackmail has also been ongoing for two-and-a-half years."
"I am using this platform to say that if you bury them today, I will go to Quetta to meet the families of the deceased," he said.
"This should be clear. All of your demands have been met but you can't impose a condition which has [no logic]. So first, bury the dead. If you do it today then I guarantee you that I will come to Quetta today," Khan was quoted as saying by Dawn News.
The killing of the 11 coal miners was claimed yb Islamic State group.
Since then, thousands of Hazaras have staged a protest along with coffins containing the miners' bodies in the western bypass area in Quetta, while members of the community have also held protests in other cities across the country, Dawn News reported.
Meanwhile, PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz on Friday once again hit out at Prime Minister Imran Khan for not having visited the Shia Hazaras protesting the killing of coal miners in the Machh area so far and for his 'blackmail' remark.
"The nation wants to know what was the problem which prevented you from going and putting your hand on their heads. If this was due to obedience (tabedari), then the nation wants to know is obedience more important than the people's lives?" she was quoted as saying by Dawn News.
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