In this dirty war of 'words and dirty tricks and efforts to destroy Paksitan' now unconfirmed reports from Pakistan say unfortunately that India has emerged as the prime suspect of Sunday's terrorist attack on a Catholic church in Bahawalpur killing 18 persons, including a policeman, and 17 members of the country's Christian community.
On the basis of circumstantial evidence and keeping in view the normal pattern of terrorist targets in the country, the government has asked the intelligence agencies to include India as the prime suspect. It is suspected that the Indian RAW has masterminded this carnage to malign Pakistan.
An Interior Ministry spokesman, meanwhile, said the government, both at the federal and provincial levels, had taken all possible measures for the safety and security of places of worships and allegations to the contrary, that no precautionary measures were taken despite intelligence warnings, are not correct.
The spokesman said as a matter of fact, the presence of an armed police guard at the church in Bahawalpur was part of the precaution that the local authorities had taken as no such policing of churches or any other place of worship is done under normal circumstances. The police guard on duty also fell victim to the attack by the terrorists. Similar security steps had also been taken at other churches in the country and these measures continue to be in position, he said.
The government, he said, is committed to its responsibility in this regard and will continue to take all possible measures to safeguard the lives and properties of Pakistanis of every religious belief, the spokesman reiterated.
The government, meanwhile, has also convened an emergent meeting on law and order here on Tuesday to review the situation with particular reference to the Sunday incident. The meeting to be chaired by the interior minister will be attended by all the provincial chief secretaries, home secretaries, interior secretary and representatives of intelligence agencies. The meeting will also discuss the Sunday's bomb blast in Quetta and the issue of border security with Balochistan.
The government does not see much chances of any internal aspect behind the Sunday's massacre of its kind in the country's history. Secretary Interior Tasneem Noorani when contacted agreed that the Bahawalpur killing did not fit in the usual pattern of terrorist attacks or sectarian violence in Pakistan.
"It does not seem to be inter-sectarian sentiment behind the Bahawalpur killings," Noorani said, adding that the Christian community in Pakistan had never been the target of any religious or sectarian group.
Suspecting the involvement of "external hand" behind these killings, the secretary interior said that the Punjab police and intelligence agencies had already started their investigations to get to those who masterminded the attack.
Bahawalpur, being near the Indian porous border, it is said, has always been the victim of terrorist attacks by Indian infiltrators.
The government believes that the turning of post September 11 events in Islamabad's favour and the absolute failure of New Delhi's repeated attempts to isolate Pakistan and make it a target of the US wrath against terrorists, has led the Indian agencies to execute this terrorist attack so that anti-Pakistan feelings could be created in the international community in general and amongst the world's Christians in particular.
Sources in the Chief Executive Secretariat even see bleak chances of any of the country's religious group's involvement in this attack. The history of country's sectarian violence does not prove this linkage. Neither are there any signs of anti-Christian feelings anywhere in Pakistan, a source said.
Almost all different religio-political parties and sectarian groups in the country have condemned Sunday's attack on the church and expressed their sympathy with the Christian minority.
The CE Secretariat sources said that the intelligence agencies of the country had been given the special task of targeting the terrorist networks in the country to pre-empt such terrorism. These sources said that normal precautionary measures could not prove enough to counter such events.
A policeman was guarding the Catholic Church, targeted on Sunday, but even then the terrorists struck and successfully carried out their plan. Deployment of heavy police or other security personnel at all expected targets of terrorism is said to be neither a solution nor feasible. "There is need to break the terrorist networks," a source said.
The government, the source disclosed, was already in the process of revamping the intelligence network besides extending it down to district level to effectively check the terrorist activities in the country. General Musharraf has already directed to run these agencies professionally instead of using them for spying on politicians.
Rauf Klasra adds: Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider here on Monday directed secret agencies heads to send all the information reports to the provincial home departments and local police as well so that they could take precautionary steps to stop likely terrorism. The minister on Monday presided over a high-level meeting of intelligence agencies in the evening in his office to review the situation arising out of killings of Christians in Bahawalpur. |
