Thousands of ethnic Hazara women are refusing to bury their loved ones until the Pakistani government takes action against plotters who bombed a market and killed 89 people. Shia Muslim Hazaras say they receive no protection from the police or the army in the face of repeated attacks on their minority group. Saturday's blast in a food market was the second large-casualty attack on the group in a month. Today, thousands of women took to the streets to demand protection from the Sunni militants who have long targeted them because they do not view them as 'real Muslims'. The refusal of the Hazara women to . follow the customary Islamic ritual of burying the dead as soon as . possible is seen as 'the last stand' of the persecuted minority. Pakistani Shiite Muslims gather to protest against a devastating bomb in Quetta and to demand protection . Young women join in the protest by Shiites, many of them Hazaras, against the way they are targeted by Sunnis . Around 4,000 Hazara women staged a sit-in protest in Quetta, blocking a road and refusing to move until action was taken against those behind the bombing that . killed 89 people. Local Shia leader Qayyum Changezi told journalists that the protesters 'will not bury the dead until a targeted operation is launched'. The Hazaras had carried the bodies of the blast victims to a local mosque but then began chanting and protesting instead of proceeding with the burials. Meanwhile, militants wearing suicide . vests and disguised as policemen attacked the office of a senior . political official in northwest Pakistan, killing six people, police . said. Pakistan has been besieged by militant attacks in recent years, many of them carried out by the Pakistani Taliban, who have been waging a bloody insurgency against the government. Pakistani Shiite Muslims gather around the coffins of bomb attack victims as they demonstrate in Quetta today . Thousands of Hazara women stood up to be counted in today's protests from a long-persecuted minority . Radical Sunni militant groups have also increasingly targeted the country's Shiites because they do not view them as 'real Muslims'. As a result, say the Shiites, they are living in fear. Many of these sectarian attacks have occurred in southwest Baluchistan province, which has the largest concentration of Shiites in Pakistan, many of them Hazaras, an ethnic group that migrated from Afghanistan over a century ago. The bomb that ripped through a food market on Saturday in Baluchistan's provincial capital of Quetta was the second mass-casualty attack targeting Shiites in the city in a little over a month. A double bombing of a billiards hall in January killed 86 people. A young Shiite Muslim holds a photo of a murdered relative while another asks for an end to the persecution . The death toll from the most recent blast, which was caused by a bomb hidden in a water tank, rose to 89 today after eight people died of their wounds, said Baluchistan's home secretary, Akbar Hussain Durrani. Outrage over the attacks has grown in Pakistan, and protests were held in over a half dozen other cities today. But it was unclear whether the demonstrations will be enough to get the action that will make the Shiites any safer. Rights groups have criticised the government for not doing enough to crack down on the attacks. They blame past connections between the country's military and anti-Shiite militants, and also allege the sectarian groups are seen as less of a threat than the Taliban because they are not targeting the state. Shiite Muslims mourn the death of a relative on the second day of protests after Saturday's devastating bomb . Despite this criticism, the Shiites in Quetta see the Pakistani army as their only potential saviour and are demanding the generals be given control of the city. They blame the provincial government and police for failing to protect them and want the army to take targeted action against sectarian militant groups like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which claimed responsibility for both the recent bombings in the city. Shiite leader Amin Shaheedi told journalists: 'We will not bury our martyrs until our demands are fulfilled.' An estimated 15,000 protestors poured into the streets near the attack site carrying signs and chanting slogans against terrorism. Saturday's bomb exploded in a market in Hazara town, an area dominated by Shiites on the outskirts of Quetta . Others remained inside a mosque beside the bodies of their relatives, which were covered with white sheets. One young girl wrote on her face, 'Don't kill me. I am Shia.' After the bombing in January that killed 86 people, Shiites camped out in the street for four days alongside the coffins of their loved ones. Eventually the country's prime minister ordered a shake-up in the regional administration, putting the local governor in charge of the whole province. But the governor has expressed frustration, saying the recent bombing was the result of a failure of the provincial security and intelligence services. Provincial home secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani said the government had no plans to call in the army and will continue to rely on the 3,000 members of the paramilitary Frontier Corps who are deployed in Quetta, as well as the police. Smoke rises above Quetta following the explosion in a food market there that has so far claimed 89 lives . People gather around the bodies of the victims of Saturday's blast that targeted Shiite Muslims . Today's most significant protests outside Quetta occurred in Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, located on the country's southern coast. Hundreds of protesting Shiites paralysed key areas of the city by blocking major roads, including the one that leads to the airport. Violence in Karachi risked exacerbating sectarian tensions. Gunmen opened fire on a restaurant in the city, killing two people, said police spokesman Imran Shaukat. A spokesman for a Sunni extremist group, Ahle Sunnat Waljamaat, said two of its activists were killed in the attack. Members of the group clashed with police following the shooting, he said. In the eastern city of Lahore, gunmen on a motorcycle shot to death a Shiite doctor and his 12-year-old son, but it was unclear whether the attack was sectarian in nature, said senior police officer Malik Ovais. The agony of loss: A Pakistani man comforts another mourning for a relative killed in Saturday's bomb . The target of Monday's attack in the northwestern city of Peshawar was the office of the top political official for the Khyber tribal area, a major militant sanctuary in the country. The militants were disguised in the same type of uniform worn by the tribal policemen who protect the compound. At least five militants attacked policemen protecting the compound with assault rifles and hand grenades, said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister for surrounding Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Some managed to slip inside the compound, and two blew themselves up. Officials are trying to determine what happened to the other attackers, he said. Six people were killed in the attack, including four tribal policemen and two civilians, said senior police officer Shafqat Malik. Thirteen people were wounded, including some who were inside an office that collapsed from the force of the explosions.
Estimated 15,000 Shiites protested over Saturday's bomb in a food market .
Ethnic Hazara women furious at lack of protection from Quetta authorities .
Their protest started after they took bodies of dead to mosque yesterday .
Thousands of ethnic Hazara women are refusing to bury their loved ones until the Pakistani government takes action against plotters who bombed a market and killed 89 people. Shia Muslim Hazaras say they receive no protection from the police or the army in the face of repeated attacks on their minority group. Saturday's blast in a food market was the second large-casualty attack on the group in a month. Today, thousands of women took to the streets to demand protection from the Sunni militants who have long targeted them because they do not view them as 'real Muslims'. The refusal of the Hazara women to . follow the customary Islamic ritual of burying the dead as soon as . possible is seen as 'the last stand' of the persecuted minority. Pakistani Shiite Muslims gather to protest against a devastating bomb in Quetta and to demand protection . Young women join in the protest by Shiites, many of them Hazaras, against the way they are targeted by Sunnis . Around 4,000 Hazara women staged a sit-in protest in Quetta, blocking a road and refusing to move until action was taken against those behind the bombing that . killed 89 people. Local Shia leader Qayyum Changezi told journalists that the protesters 'will not bury the dead until a targeted operation is launched'. The Hazaras had carried the bodies of the blast victims to a local mosque but then began chanting and protesting instead of proceeding with the burials. Meanwhile, militants wearing suicide . vests and disguised as policemen attacked the office of a senior . political official in northwest Pakistan, killing six people, police . said. Pakistan has been besieged by militant attacks in recent years, many of them carried out by the Pakistani Taliban, who have been waging a bloody insurgency against the government. Pakistani Shiite Muslims gather around the coffins of bomb attack victims as they demonstrate in Quetta today . Thousands of Hazara women stood up to be counted in today's protests from a long-persecuted minority . Radical Sunni militant groups have also increasingly targeted the country's Shiites because they do not view them as 'real Muslims'. As a result, say the Shiites, they are living in fear. Many of these sectarian attacks have occurred in southwest Baluchistan province, which has the largest concentration of Shiites in Pakistan, many of them Hazaras, an ethnic group that migrated from Afghanistan over a century ago. The bomb that ripped through a food market on Saturday in Baluchistan's provincial capital of Quetta was the second mass-casualty attack targeting Shiites in the city in a little over a month. A double bombing of a billiards hall in January killed 86 people. A young Shiite Muslim holds a photo of a murdered relative while another asks for an end to the persecution . The death toll from the most recent blast, which was caused by a bomb hidden in a water tank, rose to 89 today after eight people died of their wounds, said Baluchistan's home secretary, Akbar Hussain Durrani. Outrage over the attacks has grown in Pakistan, and protests were held in over a half dozen other cities today. But it was unclear whether the demonstrations will be enough to get the action that will make the Shiites any safer. Rights groups have criticised the government for not doing enough to crack down on the attacks. They blame past connections between the country's military and anti-Shiite militants, and also allege the sectarian groups are seen as less of a threat than the Taliban because they are not targeting the state. Shiite Muslims mourn the death of a relative on the second day of protests after Saturday's devastating bomb . Despite this criticism, the Shiites in Quetta see the Pakistani army as their only potential saviour and are demanding the generals be given control of the city. They blame the provincial government and police for failing to protect them and want the army to take targeted action against sectarian militant groups like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which claimed responsibility for both the recent bombings in the city. Shiite leader Amin Shaheedi told journalists: 'We will not bury our martyrs until our demands are fulfilled.' An estimated 15,000 protestors poured into the streets near the attack site carrying signs and chanting slogans against terrorism. Saturday's bomb exploded in a market in Hazara town, an area dominated by Shiites on the outskirts of Quetta . Others remained inside a mosque beside the bodies of their relatives, which were covered with white sheets. One young girl wrote on her face, 'Don't kill me. I am Shia.' After the bombing in January that killed 86 people, Shiites camped out in the street for four days alongside the coffins of their loved ones. Eventually the country's prime minister ordered a shake-up in the regional administration, putting the local governor in charge of the whole province. But the governor has expressed frustration, saying the recent bombing was the result of a failure of the provincial security and intelligence services. Provincial home secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani said the government had no plans to call in the army and will continue to rely on the 3,000 members of the paramilitary Frontier Corps who are deployed in Quetta, as well as the police. Smoke rises above Quetta following the explosion in a food market there that has so far claimed 89 lives . People gather around the bodies of the victims of Saturday's blast that targeted Shiite Muslims . Today's most significant protests outside Quetta occurred in Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, located on the country's southern coast. Hundreds of protesting Shiites paralysed key areas of the city by blocking major roads, including the one that leads to the airport. Violence in Karachi risked exacerbating sectarian tensions. Gunmen opened fire on a restaurant in the city, killing two people, said police spokesman Imran Shaukat. A spokesman for a Sunni extremist group, Ahle Sunnat Waljamaat, said two of its activists were killed in the attack. Members of the group clashed with police following the shooting, he said. In the eastern city of Lahore, gunmen on a motorcycle shot to death a Shiite doctor and his 12-year-old son, but it was unclear whether the attack was sectarian in nature, said senior police officer Malik Ovais. The agony of loss: A Pakistani man comforts another mourning for a relative killed in Saturday's bomb . The target of Monday's attack in the northwestern city of Peshawar was the office of the top political official for the Khyber tribal area, a major militant sanctuary in the country. The militants were disguised in the same type of uniform worn by the tribal policemen who protect the compound. At least five militants attacked policemen protecting the compound with assault rifles and hand grenades, said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister for surrounding Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Some managed to slip inside the compound, and two blew themselves up. Officials are trying to determine what happened to the other attackers, he said. Six people were killed in the attack, including four tribal policemen and two civilians, said senior police officer Shafqat Malik. Thirteen people were wounded, including some who were inside an office that collapsed from the force of the explosions.
Hazaras say they receive no protection from the in a food market was the second large-casualty Muslims'. The refusal of the Hazara women to . the bodies of the blast victims to a local mosque criticism, the Shiites in Quetta see the in Saturday's bomb . The target of Monday's