Law, order meeting summoned

Published March 18, 2002

ISLAMABAD, March 17: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has called an inter-provincial law and order meeting on Tuesday to review the security situation in the country after an attack on the Protestant International Church on Sunday morning.

Talking to newsmen at Al-Shifa International Hospital, Interior Minister Lt-Gen (retired) Moinuddin Haider said the meeting would be attended by the provincial governors, police chiefs, intelligence heads and Interior Ministry officials.

President Musharraf would review the law and order situation in the context of the action being taken against activists of the banned militant organisations, the increasing incidents of killings of doctors in Karachi and the attack on the church, he said.

In response to a question about security at the Protestant International Church, the minister said two guards of the church and two policemen were posted on duty round-the-clock.

However, the church authorities, he added, had requested the police not to carry out body search of the worshippers.

About security measures in Islamabad, Haider said despite the best security steps, acts of terrorism take place around the world, including the US. “The security measures in Islamabad are already stringent,” he said.

Replying to a question about the identity of the attacker(s), he said it was too early to say. But those who carried out the attacks were certainly not friends of Islam or Pakistan, he added.

Responding to a question whether there was any linkage between the killing of the suspect of Bahawalpur church massacre in police encounter and the recent attack, the minister said it was too early to say anything in this regard.

The investigations are focusing on all the different angles and possibilities, he added.

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