Iranian MP Criticizes Islamabad's Weakness in Protecting Pakistani Shiites

Member of the parliament's Presiding Board Alireza Monadi Sefidaan expressed deep regret over the growing trend of anti-Shiite attacks in Pakistan, and said that the long-term goal of extremist groups is massacring the Shiites in genocidal attacks.

"The negligence shown by Pakistan's central government has allowed these terrorist groups to kill Shiites easily and carelessly in an effort to change the demographical strategy of Pakistan to the loss of the Shiites," Monadi told ICANA.

He further lashed out at the international circles for their silence over these crimes and the extremist groups' genocidal attacks on the Shiite Muslims in Pakistan.

In the latest attack on the Pakistani Shiite community, a bomb blast killed at least 81 people, including women and children, and injured 200 others.

The bomb was attached to a motorcycle outside a crowded vegetable market in Quetta, and targeted the area's Shiite community.

The death toll has risen to 81 after law enforcement dragged several more bodies from the rubble of the collapsed two-story building.

Several houses and shops were completely destroyed by the blast. Security officials said that an estimated 100 kilograms of explosives was used in the attack.

Following the attack, Iran strongly condemned the bombing, and warned that the terrorist attacks are aimed at sowing discord in the Muslim country.

In a message to his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani on Sunday, Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi condoled with the people and government of Pakistan over the death of the country's citizens in the recent terrorist attack.

He said that such criminal acts are in line with the aliens' divisive plots against Pakistan's people and interests, and added that these crimes serve the inauspicious goals of the enemies of Islam.

Salehi also called on the Pakistani officials and religious leaders to take necessary measures to prevent bloodshed in the Muslim state.
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