KARACHI, Oct 7: The tragedy in Multan shortly after a similar one in Sialkot is a manifestation of total breakdown of law and order in the country and the work of agencies, which are working to bring a bad name to Islam and the country.

Condemning the tragedy, leaders of a cross-section of people said it was an open terrorism and a heinous conspiracy to trigger sectarian riots in the country.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain expressing sorrow and grief over the tragedy of Rasheedabad near Multan in which 40 people were killed and over 100 injured, said those who were playing with the lives of innocent human beings were not only enemies of the country but of humanity as a whole.

Mr Hussain demanded President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to take immediate notice of the tragedy and order arrests of the people involved in it.

The central leader of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, Senator Prof Ghafoor Ahmad, termed the Multan tragedy an outcome of government negligence, and said that if permission had been granted to observe the death anniversary of a leader, it was the government's responsibility to have made adequate security arrangements as well.

Prof Ghafoor, who is also deputy chief of the Jamaat-i-Islami, said the entire country was in mourning over the tragedy, which took the lives of 40 persons and injured as many as 100 others.

He recalled an earlier bomb blast incident that took place in the industrial city of Sialkot, killing 30 people, but said the government despite its claims had still failed to take appropriate security measures.

He pointed out that rulers took extraordinary security measures for their own protection but had left their citizens at the mercy of terrorists. Deputy leader of Opposition in Sindh Assembly Maulana Umar Sadiq said that anti-Islam forces were behind this tragedy as they wanted to cause harm to religion.

Maulana Umar Sadiq, who is also leader of MMA Parliamentary Party in the provincial assembly, said neither Sunnis were involved in the Sialkot tragedy, nor any Shia had a hand in the Multan tragedy, but agents of colonialism, particularly Zionists, were behind these tragedies.

He said the tragic incidents occurred one after the other in Punjab which indicated that this time enemy target was Punjab where there was a big change among people who were looking towards the MMA leadership.