Victims of Safoora massacre laid to rest

Funeral prayers of the 44 victims of the Safoora Goth massacre were offered and on Thursday morning at Al-Azhar Garden colony. With tears and overwhelming grief, friends and relatives performed the last rituals of the 44 ill-fated men and women who were gunned down mercilessly at Safoora Chowrangi on Wednesday morning. The bodies were taken to a community graveyard in Sakhi Hassan area under tight security for burial.
People belonging to different walks of life including politicians, government officers and civil society members attended the funeral services. A day of mourning was observed across the country with the national flag flying at half-mast to express sympathies wit the bereaved families. Public transport was sparse in Karachi while commercial centres and private schools remained closed. All the shops and market remained closed in the city.
Talking to media persons outside the graveyard, member of MQM Coordination Committee Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said: "Killing of innocent people at Safoorah Chowrangi is a big tragedy and the terrorists involved in it have crossed all limits of barbarity." He thanked prime minister Nawaz Sharif for rushing to Karachi after the gruesome killings. "A lot needs to be done in Karachi in the light of real facts. What has happened yesterday should be sufficient to show the peril facing Karachi." "There is no need to hunt down terrorists as they have established safe havens. Karachi needs a well-planned and co-ordinated operation to crush the hydra of terrorism."
He said, "The Safoora tragedy has exposed the performance of both the Sindh and the federal governments. All claims of eliminating terrorism from Karachi have proved to be far-fetched." Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly Khawaja Izharul Hassan said that the MQM shared the grief of the people who lost their loved ones in the gory attack on the bus. "The MQM stands shoulder to shoulder with the Ismaili community in their time of grief." He said that the Ismailis were a peaceful community, and they live peacefully throughout the world. "Terrorists want Karachi to descend into lawlessness and chaos by targeting the Ismaili community."