(AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Simmering sectarian violence once again erupted in Pakistan on Monday. Violent protests took place in Quetta, capital of gas-rich western Balochistan province after the slaying there of a Shia Muslim politician. And at least five people died in a bombing outside the town hall in Dera Ismail Khan, in restive, Pashtun dominated Northwest Frontier province.The banned Sunni extremist group Lashkar-i-Jhangvi has claimed responsibility for the drive-by slaying in Quetta of Hussain Ali Yousufi. A prominent Shia figure and ethnic Hazara, he led the Hazara Democratic Party. Ethnic Hazaras form a sizeable population (around 90,000) in Balochistan province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran - the country from which they originally migrated to Pakistan.
Clashes between the Taliban and Hazara in Afghanistan have in recent years damaged previously peaceful relations between Sunni Pashtun and Baloch tribesmen.
Hazara Shias have been a frequent target of Sunni extremist groups in Pakistani Balochistan. The Hazara community originally comes from the Afghan province of Bamyan.
Angry Hazara youths ransacked the main commercial centre in Quetta after Yousufi's killing on Monday. They pelted passing vehicles with stones, set other vehicles alight and smashed the windows of a bank in the city's main boulevard. The Hazara Democratic Party meanwhile announced a strike in the city on Tuesday and a 40-day period of mourning for Yousufi.
HDP secretary general Abdul Khaliq Hazara strongly condemned the government and police for the inadequate protection given to ethnic Hazaras targeted by extremists.
Protection given to anybody in Pakistain seems pretty inadequate. Except for Mullah Fazlullah and Mullah Omar and similar guys with big turbans surrounded by ruthless minions.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast in Dera Ismail Khan, which reportedly occurred minutes before the parliamentary affairs minister, Khalifa Qayyum, had passed through the area. Prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani condemned the bombing and vowed to bring to justice those responsible.
They've got a long list of people they've vowed to bring to justice, not many of whom have gotten more than house arrest and a week without teevee.
Other politicians also condemned the attack as a barbaric act of terrorism.
Some low-level Al Qaeda members were identified as having been among the 12 militants killed by an artillery and helicopter attack on two compounds near the Afghan border, officials said on Wednesday, raising the toll of 10 from Tuesday's strike.
MULTAN: A man has sought protection from 
A bomb rigged to a bicycle exploded in Quetta on Wednesday, injuring seven people, said police. The explosion, near a police station in downtown Quetta, also shattered windows of the police station, several nearby shops and a hotel, said Khizar Hayat, a police official in Quetta. No policeman was injured. The wounded people included shop owners, passers-by and shoppers in the market, said Hayat, adding that a 50-year-old man was seriously hurt. Nobody claimed responsibility for the blast, but authorities blame rebel 
QUETTA: A bomb damaged a gas pipeline in Balochistan on Sunday, cutting supplies to thousands of homes but causing no injuries. The blast damaged less than a metre of the 45-centimetre-wide pipeline in the mountainous area of Lakpass, south of Quetta, said area police official Hamid Shakil. No one was reported hurt, but the blast disrupted gas supplies to about 2,000 homes and businesses in Mastung and Kalat districts, Shakil said. There was no claim of responsibility, but authorities have blamed rebel 
QUETTA: A homemade bomb exploded near a police officer's home in Balochistan early on Tuesday, wounding the officer's wife and a daughter, an official said. The police wireless control officer, whose home was targeted by the bomb, escaped unhurt in the explosion in Mastung, a town about 50 kilometres south of Quetta, area police officer Hamid Shakil said. The explosion toppled the gate of the policeman's home and his wife and a 9-year-old daughter were hit and wounded by debris and shrapnel from the bomb. There was no word on the condition of the victims. Shakil blamed renegade 
QUETTA: Security forces killed at least 17 people including 12 women during clashes with armed Bugti tribesmen in Bugti Hills on Tuesday, Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) chief Nawab Akbar Bugti has claimed. Speaking to reporters via satellite phone, Bugti said that tribesmen had also shot down a security forces helicopter. The 17 people were all civilians and the women were grazing cattle, he said. Bugti said that 22 helicopter gun ships and four jet fighters had been involved in air strikes against the