ISLAMABAD, March 5: Responding to an unabated disquiet in the Senate, the government on Friday rejected charges that its own forces had shot most of the people killed during Tuesday's Ashura mourning procession in Quetta.

Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat also invited opposition to give suggestions to help the government improve security situation in the country as the role of police and other security agencies in handling the Quetta incident came under sharp criticism for the second successive sitting of the upper house within three days.

"It is totally wrong, it is absolutely untrue,...," he said about the charges by the opposition Senators and Shia community leaders in Quetta that more than 30 people were killed in police and Anti-Terrorist Force firing while others were killed by suicide attackers.

The minister put the death toll so far at 44, which he said was not final and could rise as about 150 wounded people were still in hospital. Thirty-eight bodies had been buried while the rest were lying in hospital unclaimed.

Mr Hayat said law-enforcement agencies had shown "maximum restraint" in the face of violence by protesters who went on a rampage after the attack on the mourning procession by what the government calls suicide-bombers and added: "The (casualty) figure would have been much higher if they (forces) had opened fire."

The minister side-stepped opposition charges of lapses by law- enforcement agencies, saying he would not blame any agency before the report of a judicial inquiry ordered by the Balochistan provincial government. Opposition Senators said their allegations of police killings were based on media reports and information from relatives of the victims.

They seemed to be dissatisfied with the minister's statement and continued to raise protesting voices, which provoked counter- protests from the treasury benches and a furore that was cut short by the muezzin's call for Friday prayers, after which Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro adjourned the house until another sitting in the afternoon to resume the continuing debate on President Pervez Musharraf's Jan 17 speech to parliament.

PPP parliamentary party leader Raza Rabbani accused the government of failing to provide facts and called a mere cover-up statement in the Senate by Information and Broadcasting Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Wednesday that blamed all deaths on three alleged suicide attackers, two of whom were reported to have blown themselves up and the third was injured and arrested.

He said the Quetta incident should be seen in the context of a recent military operation against alleged terrorists outside Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan tribal agency, and a US State Department report alleging increased custodial killings in Pakistan.

Mr Rabbani, who also leads the 22-seat parliamentary group of the opposition Democratic Alliance in the Senate, accused the government of failing to maintain law and order and said there appeared to "no writ of state".

He wanted the government to explain its state of preparedness in Quetta before Tuesday's incident, why its strategy, if any, failed, why police took more than five hours to control violence, and how long the inquiry by a high court judge as ordered by the provincial government would take to make its report and what were its terms of reference.

Prof Khurshid Ahmed of MMA wanted to know the role of intelligence agencies in the matter and reasons of their perceived failure. Mr Hayat said all possible measures "within available resources" were taken, with paramilitary and police forces spread in whole of Quetta to provide a security cover to several mourning processions organized for the Ashura mourning.

But he said even billions of dollars spent by more resourceful countries had unable to prevent suicide attacks like "an act against civilized humanity" in Quetta. He said the government would have to make "a new strategy" to plug loopholes and called for opposition proposals.

"If they have any positive proposals to improve security, they should bring them (to us)," he said of opposition Senators who, he complained had so far only made critical speeches but not come forward with substantive plans.

"It is a war of all patriotic people of Pakistan who want to have a peaceful society in the country,", he said of the government's campaign against terrorism and religious extremism. "We want to stop such (terrorist) people and elements and institutions backing them."

EARLY REPORT EXPECTED: The minister said although no time-frame had been set for the report of the inquiry ordered by the Balochistan government, he hoped it would take "the minimum time" and he would submit its findings to the Senate as soon as received.