Posted on 03/07/2004 1:04:41 AM PST by Cap Huff
LAHORE – Federal Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said on Saturday that preliminary investigations suggested that Al-Qeada is not involved in the recent terrorist attack in Quetta.
He said three separate inquiries at different levels were under way to fix responsibility in the security lapses that led to the unfortunate incident. The investigations, he said, would also reveal the provincial government’s security measures.
To a question, the Minister said he had ordered report on the murder of PPP-P MPA in Karachi and according to initial reports, he said, personal enmity was behind the killing.
“There is a thin line between ‘terrorism and extremism’. At present we cannot say that Al-Qaeda was involved in sectarian terrorism in Pakistan. The Quetta massacre did not seem as a sectarian violence. It should be seen in the background that Quetta is near to Afghan border hosting a large number of Afghan refugees,” said the Minister talking to the newsmen at the Allama Iqbal Town residence of ARD Deputy Information Secretary Munir Ahmad Khan. Earlier, Faisal offered fateha for the departed soul of Munir Khan’s father and expressed his sorrow and grief with the bereaved family.
The Minister said Osama bin Laden has yet not been captured despite military operations in tribal areas and Afghanistan. He believed that only 20 to 25 per cent Al-Qaeda remnants were active and rest of its terrorist network had been eliminated. These remnants, he said, would be dismantled soon.
He claimed that the incidence of sectarian killings during Jamali government had decreased as compared to the previous governments.
In view of new wave of suicide attacks, he said, the law enforcement agencies would have to review their strategy to combat the terrorism. However, he strongly rejected the link of Karbala and Baghdad incidents with Quetta massacre.
In response to MMA’s demand of resignation of the Interior Minister, Faisal Saleh Hayat said the Majlis is part of the Balochistan government and MMA leaders first should review performance of their ministers. And even the outlawed Tehrik-e-Jafaria chief Allama Sajid Naqvi, he said, was Vice President of the MMA.
He lauded security measures taken by law enforcement agencies, and said that many incidents had not occurred due to their timely actions in other parts of the country.
He urged the media men to avoid highlighting issues of national security. He claimed that the government had ensured freedom of Press. However, when his attention was drawn towards government’s ban on ads to Nawa-i-Waqt group of publications, he said: “It is a matter of the Information ministry”.
He said US Secretary of State Colin Powell during his visit to Pakistan would focus on trade ties, ongoing war against terrorism, three-billion-dollar package for Pakistan, regional issues particularly increase in forces in Afghanistan. He also briefed the journalists about his recent meeting with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. To a question, the Minister said he was not satisfied with the law and order situation in Punjab.
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