 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Pakistan has said that it did not rule out the involvement of "foreign hands" in the recent incidents of Karachi violence.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Rehman Malik told the national assembly on Tuesday that though the "hostile elements" had not succeeded in destabilising Pakistan, "the danger had not been vanquished", said Pakistani daily The Dawn.
Malik, who was addressing the national assembly at the end of a two-day debate on Karachi violence, also said that a confirmed report on the involvement of foreign hands would be received after three weeks.
Malik said the primary investigation had identified the Judallah group as being responsible for the blast on a Ashura procession last month, no group had claimed responsibility for the February 5's bomb attacks at a bus and a hospital that killed about 30 people on the occasion of Chehlum, the day remembered for the martyrdom of Imam Hussain.
"But we cannot rule out (role of) foreign elements," he said.
Malik said he had formed a joint team of the Inter-Services Intelligence, the Intelligence Bureau and the Federal Investigation Agency to investigate the February 5 bombings, The Dawn reported.
The minister also did not rule out the possibility of Taliban terrorists being involved.
A number of terrorists had run away from military operations in Swat and South Waziristan and were living in Karachi, and they are also engaged in criminal activities, he said.
The minister said he was getting alerts on anti-state elements on a daily basis, and that this intelligence reports had averted 80 percent of terrorist plots.