Rehman Malik urges minorities to unite against terrorists
 
31-05-2010

Federal Minister for Interior Rehman Malik on Sunday urged minorities to unite against terrorists to thwart their evil machinations to destabilize the country. “I call upon the nation and minorities not to fall in the trap of terrorists who want to weaken the country”, he said while talking to media during his visit to a worship place of Ahmedis in Model Town where 27 persons were killed in a terrorist attack on Friday.

The minister said the government had controlled terrorism in a very short period of time. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Jaish-e-Muhammad are part of Tehrik -Taliban Pakistan (TTP), he added.

Condemning the killing of 79 persons in terrorist attacks in Model Town and Garhi Shahu, he said, “Islam does not allow the killing of innocent people at any cost and handful elements with their self-styled Islam cannot dent our will to defeat them.”

The Federal Minister said the survival of Islam as well as the country lies in the elimination of terrorists.

He said terrorism has become a threat to all provinces, which are united against anti-state elements.

“I along with Federal Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti have come to visit and share the grief of Ahmedis on special instructions of President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani”, he said.

To a question, Malik said, “I assure the nation that the government would eliminate terrorists from Southern  Punjab and the rest of the country as we have thrown them out of Swat and Malkund with the support of the masses”.

He said he had convened a meeting of all home ministers and IGs next week to devise a new strategy to exterminate terrorism.

To another query, he said 29 religious outfits had been banned in the country, adding that 1764 names of suspects had been short listed and 726 were from South Punjab. 

He said terrorists ware out to fan sectarianism in the country after they had been beaten by the brave army and law enforcement agencies adding that they tried to create a rift among two sects in Faisalabad in the recent past which was averted by the government.

To a question, the minister said information was being received for the last three months regarding the activities of terrorists, which was shared with the provinces on May 13.

Reposing confidence in investigations by the Punjab government, he dispelled the impression that the federal government would launch an inquiry into the audacious attacks.

The minister hinted at devising a new mechanism to hunt down terrorists.

To a question, he said a new Minorities Bill was under way to protect them from any kind of discrimination, adding that findings of an inquiry report into the Gojra incident had proved that it was incited by a leader of Sipah-e-Sahaba.

He said he would ask Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to make the Gojra inquiry report public.

The Interior Minister said more than 44 per cent seminaries were in South Punjab. He said terrorists had started to sneak into other parts of the country from South Punjab and measures were being taken to deal with them with an iron hand.

The Interior Minister said everybody changes strategy with the passage of time adding that terrorists had changed their startegy and wanted to create religious disharmony in the country.

On Punjab government’s connections with banned religious outfits, he said if the media has concrete proof, it should be provided to courts of law.

About the involvement of RAW in Friday’s terrorist attacks as claimed by Commissioner Lahore Khusro Pervaiz he said, “I will not speak about it unless I have solid proof”.

He said five Wafaqul Madaris were working at present in the country under which 17,000 madrassahs had been registered.

The Interior Minister called upon the media to play its due role in exposing assassins in the guise of Islamists adding that it should not glorify ‘Zaliman’ (hardened criminals) as it was a matter of survival of the country.

Rehman Malik said the government stance would be very hard from onward.