OKARA, Aug 13: Interior minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao has said the Al-Qaeda network has been wiped out by the government but suicide attackers are posing a serious threat to the country and the law-enforcement agencies are alert to thwart their evil designs.

He was speaking to journalists after laying chaddar at the shrine of Hazrat Khwaja Muhammad Akbar at his Urs at Basirpur (Okara district) on Sunday.

In the wake of the apparent conspiracy in London, he said, the Pakistani security forces had been put on high alert and passengers disallowed to carry hands bags on planes. A Pakistani youth, Rashid Rauf had been produced before magistrate as he was arrested for the UK planes’ conspiracy and he was being quizzed, the minister disclosed.

He said it would be known within days to which group the suspect belonged and the government would take decision after an exhaustive probe that where would he face trial.

Answering a question, he said: “We have got all the details of the London conspiracy but these will not be disclosed at this stage.”

He said Israel was indulged in state terrorism in Lebanon but the Muslims were able to counter it. “We are a part of the defenders.”

In response to another question, Sherpao said the MQM had the democratic right to establish its organisation in Punjab but this did not pose any threat to peace in the province or in the country.

He said: “I have personally no information about the government’s compromise with Benazir Bhutto. We are currently at our own political platform and in the coming general elections, we shall join any alliance if it will serve the national interest.”

As for the Nishter Park tragedy and Allama Hassan Turabi’s killing, the interior minister claimed that the government had gleaned vital information about the incidents. Three suspects in Allama Turabi’s murder were being quizzed.

Later, the minister said at a seminar sectarian unrest was the biggest problem facing the country and the government was alive to it.

Former chief minister Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo also spoke on the occasion.

ARRESTED: Okara district police chief Dr Osman Anwar claimed to have busted three gangs of criminals besides recovering looted goods and illicit weapons from their possession during a general hold-up on Saturday night.