Pakistan Shias refuse to bury Quetta dead

Thousands of Shias in Pakistan have held a sit-in in the city of Quetta, refusing to bury their dead for a second day, demanding that security forces protect them from armed Sunni groups.

More than 4,000 women blocked a road in the southwestern city on Monday, vowing to continue their protest until the authorities take action against those behind the attack that killed 84 members of the Hazara Shia community.

Protesters chanted "stop killing Shias".

Volunteers armed with automatic rifles and pistols on Monday guarded the streets of Hazara Town, the scene of Saturday's attack, the AFP news agency reported.

Police said they were in talks to end the protest. However, Qayyum Changezi, a local Shia party leader, said they "will not bury the dead until a targeted operation is launched".

Amin Shaheedi, the vice president of the Shia Wahdatul Muslemeen party, demanded control of Quetta be handed over to the army.

Earlier, at least five people were killed after fighters wearing suicide vests and disguised as policemen attacked the office of a senior political official in northwestern city of Peshawar.

Two girls aged seven and nine were among the dead after the bomb, nearly a tonne of explosives hidden in a water tanker, tore through a crowded market in a neighbourhood dominated by the ethnic Hazara minority.

The attack came just over a month after suicide bombers killed 95 people at a snooker hall in another Hazara neighbourhood of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan.

Protesters are furious at the authorities' failure to tackle rising attacks on Shias in Balochistan, which has seen more than 200 deaths in the last 35 days.