ISLAMABAD, May 10: Information Minister Nisar Memon has said that law enforcement agencies, in the current crackdown on the banned militant organizations, are concentrating on arresting their second and third-tier leadership after the Karachi incident.

The information minister, who visited Dawn’s Islamabad offices on Friday, dropped strong hints of Al-Qaida’s involvement in terrorist attack in Karachi, which left 14 dead, including 12 French technicians.

The minister visited the injured at different hospitals in Karachi on Thursday.

However, he said, the government had already sought international assistance for investigating the incident.

A French team had already arrived in the country to assist Pakistani agencies to track down the culprits. He said the American Federal Bureau of Investigation was also involved in the investigation.

The government, he explained, had sought the international assistance in the investigation in view of lack of expertise of the local agencies to investigate such cases on scientific lines.

The minister disclosed that President Musharraf would preside over a meeting of all the four governors, chief secretaries and other concerned officials, on Saturday to review the progress so far made in the investigation of the terrorist attacks.

Mr Memon said the provincial governments would also be given guidelines to adopt appropriate security measures for combating terrorism.

The government, he said, has called back Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider who is currently on a visit to the United States.

The minister did not rule out possibility of infiltration from the western borders.

Though all the major routes have been effectively sealed, the possibility of infiltration was still there given the treacherous terrain.

He also referred to the reports of regrouping of Al-Qaida members in Afghanistan.

The minister, who met the French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, said that he was very much encouraged by the understanding the French government had shown towards the Karachi incident.

He said French President Jacques Chirac and the defence minister had reaffirmed their commitment towards the Agosta project and extended their assurance that there would be no impact of the terrorist attack on it.

The minister noted with satisfaction that all those French injured in the blast had been safely shifted to France.