ISLAMABAD, Sept 23: Amid international outrage at the massacre of over 80 people in a suicide bombing at a church in Peshawar on Sunday, the government vowed in the National Assembly on Monday to “pursue” the masterminds of the act, before a mournful house too unanimously called for bringing the perpetrators to justice.

But Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said in a speech to the house that due to lack of intercepts so far, he was unsure about the authenticity of a claim of responsibility for the attack made by a group called Junoodul Hafsa, a faction of the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP).

However, he assured the house “what people are behind this (act), we will pursue them with full force of intelligence and security forces” and that God-willing they would meet an “exemplary” retribution.

Besides condemnation of the attack by leaders of most parliamentary groups in the house, opposition leader Khursheed Shah assured the government of full support of opposition parties in pursuing those responsible for the attack in the same way as they gave it a “mandate” in a Sept 9 “all-party conference” to initiate peace dialogue with “all stakeholders” in order to eliminate militant violence in the country.

“Even also, all parties are ready to give the government a mandate that you decide, pursue them, and the opposition and 18 crore people of Pakistan will stand behind you,” he said.

But a question mark arose over the fate of the Sept 9 initiative after four Taliban-claimed attacks on security forces on Sept 15, one of which killed an army major-general, Sanauullah Khan Niazi, along with an accompanying lieutenant-colonel and a lance naik in the Upper Dir district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and the Taliban put forth some difficult pre-conditions for talks such as a general amnesty for Taliban fighters, release of their prisoners and withdrawal of troops to their barracks in the militant-infested tribal belt.

While the last Sunday attack drew condemnation from Pope Francis as well as government leaders and ambassadors of several western nations, the National Assembly suspended its normal business for the day as part of a three-day national mourning, to discuss and adopt a joint resolution to condemn what it called a “heinous, brutal and inhuman terrorist attack”, which it said was “an attack not only against the Christian community but against all Pakistanis”.

Earlier, on a suggestion from a lawmaker from Peshawar, Ghulam Ahmed Bilour of the opposition Awami National Party, members of the house and visitors in the galleries stood up to observe a minute’s silence for mostly Christians among over 81 fatalities, which was followed by a Fateha prayer for Muslim casualties of the attack, which, according to the house resolution, wounded more than 137 people.

Expressing solidarity with the Christian community, the resolution demanded that the federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial governments “take all necessary measures to safeguard the rights of non-Muslims as laid down in the Quran and Sunnah and provided in the constitution of Pakistan”, provide the best medical facilities to the injured and security to all places of worship, particularly those belonging to non-Muslims, and “bring the perpetrators of these suicide attacks to justice”.

Chaudhry Nisar praised Christian community leaders in Peshawar for their patience and said he saw during his visit to the city on Sunday. He said the government would call a meeting of Christian community leaders from all over the country to discuss what he called a national policy to provide security to their institutions.

He said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) was formulating its own plan and that “we would also like to involve” the Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan provincial governments to play a role in a federal-level security committee.

Though speakers from all parties condemned the attack, varying degrees of vehemence about dealing with terrorism was evident, some of them still pinning hopes in a dialogue.

Mr Khursheed Shah, who belongs to the previously ruling PPP, whose government had ordered a successful anti-terror army operation in Malakand division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, called perpetrators of violence as “enemies of Pakistan” and said “we will extend every help to the government to eliminate terrorism and make Pakistan safe”. PTI vice-chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi, whose party has been in the forefront in advocating peace with the Taliban, conceded that “terrorist mentality would show no leniency to anyone” but said a peace option should be given to those who agreed to work within the framework of Pakistan while “irreconcilable elements” be isolated.

Khalid Maqbool, deputy parliamentary leader of the opposition Muttahida Qaumi Movement, called the Peshawar attack a manifestation of a “collective failure of us all” and said the “brand of Islam” the militants sought to enforce “is not acceptable to us”.

Sahibzada Tariqullah of the opposition Jamaat-i-Islami, a partner in the PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, said the dialogue process should not be abandoned and “should be started soon”.

Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai called for following the teachings of Islam and Pakistan’s founder Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah about rights of minorities and proposed inclusion of the then All India Muslim League’s 1940 resolution about the creation of Pakistan and the Quaid’s famous 11 August, 1947 speech to the then Constituent Assembly about the equality of minorities in state affairs in the national curriculum as the real ideology of Pakistan.

But Maulana Mohammd Khan Sherani of the government-allied Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F, seemed to have a dig even at Quaid-i-Azam’s position as Pakistan’s first governor-general after independence saying it should not be forgotten that an “important personality” took oath of loyalty to the then British King, George VI, and called the present anti-terror war as an “imposed war”.