Thousands of Shia community members today called off their protest and agreed to bury the dead after Pakistani security forces launched an operation against extremists responsible for targeting the minority sect and detained 170 suspects.

Majlis-e-Wahdat Muslimeen deputy chief Allama Amin Shaheedi, a top Shia leader, announced the end of the protest in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, this evening after talks with a parliamentary delegation led by Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira.

"I appeal to my friends to peacefully disperse. God forbid, if such a tragedy befalls us again, we will go for countrywide sit-ins again," Shaheedi told reporters.

Shia leaders said they would begin burying their dead this evening.

The government had accepted all "valid demands" of the Hazara community and protesters, Kaira said.

He did not give details of these demands.

The Shia Hazaras had refused to bury their dead till the army took control of Quetta, but there were no signs that the city would be handed over to the military.

Kaira said a "targeted operation" against militants had begun in Quetta last night.

Four wanted men had been killed and 170 others arrested.

Shaheedi along with Sardar Safdar Hazara, a Hazara community leader said that all protests and sit-ins being held to protest the bomb blast on Saturday on Kirani road that killed around 90 people had been called off.

A large quantity of arms and ammunition had been seized by security forces and the operation will “continue till its logical conclusion”, he said.

Thousands of Shias, including women and children, began their protest on Saturday after a bomb attack in Quetta killed 89 people, a majority of them Shia Hazaras.

Shia groups had organised a similar protest after twin suicide bombings in Quetta killed 92 Hazaras in January.

The banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for both attacks.