ISLAMABAD, June 11: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement's parliamentary leader in the National Assembly, Dr Farooq Sattar, said on Friday that the attack on the Karachi corps commander could have serious repercussions.

Talking to newsmen with MQM MNA Dr Amir Liaquat Hussain at the cafeteria of Parliament House, he said it was a matter of great concern that terrorists had started targeting the national security institutions.

"The recent incidents in Karachi are a declaration of war and revolt against President Gen Pervez Musharraf's policies," Dr Sattar said. He called for appointment of the same people for inquiry into the Karachi incidents who had probed the attacks on Gen Musharraf.

"A state within the state is operating openly in the country," he warned. He said there was a need to focus attention on those areas and "factories" where "terrorists" were being produced.

He asked the Jamaat-i-Islami to clear its position before the nation on the recent terrorist incidents in Karachi. Mainstream religious parties, particularly the JI, should openly denounce the attacks on mosques and imambargahs, he said.

He asked the JI leadership to tell the nation about the difference between Jihad and terrorism. He said the JI should also dissociate itself from the statement made by tribal militant Nek Mohammad that Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar would be made targets of attacks in retaliation of Wana operation.

Dr Sattar said Inter-Services Public Relations Director-General Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan had admitted that there was a link between Wana incidents and Karachi attacks.

Dr Amir Liaquat said the weapons used in the attack on the corps commander could only be used by those who had been trained for Jihad. Asked about the possibility of an operation in Karachi, the MQM leader said: "This time the religious parties will be in the place where we were in 1992."