Amidst growing calls for a decisive crackdown against the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) extremist group, federal and provincial government officials shifted the responsibility for taking action against the outlawed organisation blamed for most sectarian violence in the country.

Law and order is a provincial subject, therefore, provincial governments are responsible for peace,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Saturday and questioned the Punjab government’s “reluctance” to go after the LeJ bases in the province.He faulted the Punjab government for going soft on the LeJ even though it has been told umpteen times to dismantle LeJ bases in southern parts of the province. If the reluctance continues, the interior ministry will directly take action against the LeJ through the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), he added.

Malik called upon LeJ militants to renounce violence and surrender their arms. The government is willing to negotiate if the LeJ and Maulana Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi give up violence.Malik’s diatribe came a day after the Punjab administration detained Ahle Sunnat wal Jamaat (ASWJ) chief Malik Muhammad Ishaq, who is also said to be a leader of the LeJ, under the Maintenance of Public Order for 30 days.The LeJ has claimed responsibility for two deadly bombings in Quetta’s Alamdar Road and Hazara Town neighbourhoods in the past few weeks. Nearly 200 people, mostly from the Hazara Shia community, were killed in these attacks.

Incensed by Malik’s scathing criticism, the Sharif brothers hit back, questioning his performance as interior minister“Rehman Malik should in form the nation as to what action he has taken over the brutal murder of hundreds of innocent Muslims in Balochistan,” Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said while speaking to the media after offering condolences to the family of Prof Dr Ali Haider, who was killed in a targeted attack in Lahore.

Asked if there was any link between Dr Haider’s murder and the recent sectarian attacks in Quetta, Nawaz Sharif, the chief of the ruling party in Punjab, evaded a direct reply. Instead, he said there was rule of law in Punjab, where the security situation was much better than other provincesNawaz also hit out at the federal government for the volatile security situation in the country, particularly in Balochistan. Had the federal government taken action after the Almdar Road double bombings, the Hazara Town tragedy would have been averted, he said.

Apart from the Sharif brothers, Punjab government spokesperson Senator Pervaiz Rashid also made a rejoinder. He said Malik Ishaq was detained twice by the Shahbaz Sharif-led government. He accused the interior minister of leveling allegations for political purposes.

“Rehman Malik neither wrote a letter to the Punjab government to arrest Malik Ishaq nor provided any material, on the basis of which the ASWJ chief could have been arrested,” he added. Senator Rashid went on to reveal that 11 arms licences were issued by the Balochistan and Sindh governments to Malik Ishaq and his two sons – Malik Usman and Malik Muhammad Haq Nawaz.

Malik Ishaq’s trial demandedOn the other hand, the Hazara Democratic Party (HDP) demanded Malik Ishaq be brought to justice.
We have always been demanding arrest of all those involved in any act of sectarian violence, irrespective of their party affiliation,” HDP Chairman Abdul Khaliq Hazara told a news conference in Quetta. “[Malik] Ishaq must be brought to justice and punished for involvement in violence,” he added.

Malik Ishaq’s arrest – which came a day after the army denied any links with the LeJ – should not be “eyewash”, said Sajid Naqvi, leader of the Shia Ulema Council. “We demand his trial and the authorities should provide protection to witnesses who would like to appear in the court,” he said.

Abdul Khaliq also called for a joint session of parliament to discuss the killings of Hazaras in Quetta. He asked Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to summon intelligence agencies to brief political forces on what he called “the genocide of Hazaras in Quetta”. He clarified that his party had never made an appeal for army deployment in Quetta, adding that despite repeated attacks against their community, the party had never given up the democratic path. (With additional reporting by Mohammad Zafar in Quetta)