July 11, 2008	Friday	Rajab 7, 1429

ISLAMABAD, July 10: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Interior Rehman Malik claimed on Thursday that the government would restore peace in three months despite the fact that a new spate of terrorist attacks had hit the country.

“I am not presenting a rosy picture; we have provided results. We will take all possible actions in the next three months and the situation will improve a lot,” he told reporters at the interior ministry.

The overall law and order situation, he said, had improved remarkably and since the establishment of elected governments in Punjab and Sindh, only two suicide attacks had taken place.

The adviser claimed to have made some breakthrough in tracing the terrorists involved in Monday’s serial blasts in Karachi.

Five people have been arrested for their alleged involvement in a suicide attack at Islamabad’s Melody Market that claimed the lives of over 20 people.

Mr Malik said the situation in Bara was under control and the government was winding up the operation, but the Frontier Constabulary would stay there.

“There is no reaction in Bara. We have arrested 32 commanders of a militant organisation and destroyed 12 hideouts of Mangal Bagh, Maulvi Namdar and Mehboob,” he added.

He said Fata was returning to normality after elders of the Afridi tribe in Bara tehsil had given an undertaking to help the political administration to maintain law and order in the area.

The adviser said a Taliban leader, Amjad, and his four associates, Fasihullah, Ubaidur Rehman, Bakht Rehman and Zahir Shah, had been arrested in Fata.

About the siege of a police station in Hangu by militants on Wednesday, he said security forces had arrested a key Taliban commander, Rafiuddin, and seized hand-grenades and poisonous injections. “It was the first time that we have found such injections that may be used for killing people,” he said, adding that the militants surrounded the police station in retaliation of their commander’s arrest.

Helicopter gunships were used to disperse the militants, he added.

In reply to a question about differences between the federal and NWFP governments over the issue of operation in tribal areas, he said it was a “coordinated action” taken with the help of the local administration or the provincial government.

He denied that the action had been taken at the behest of the US.

He said the NWFP government had the authority to take action against Swat militants if they tried to violate the peace agreement.

Mr Malik said the government had beefed up security of Information Minister Sherry Rehman and National Assembly Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza after receiving threatening letters.

About the investigation by the UN into the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, he said referring the case to the world body had many reasons which would be shared with the media in a separate briefing.