KARACHI: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has said that “three to four arrests” have been made in connection with the Safoora Goth carnage and during their interrogation those responsible for the tragedy have come into focus, but it will be premature to say that “we have reached the real culprits”.

Addressing a crowded press conference at the Governor’s House on Monday after receiving a briefing from police and investigation agencies and holding consultations with the Sindh government as well as Governor Ishrat-ul-Ibad, the interior minister said there were indications that “we are on the right track”.

But, he added, there was no need to jump to conclusions since a number of scenarios were under the investigators’ consideration.

He said some important operational decisions had been taken for restoring peace in Karachi.

He said there was no agreement on extradition of prisoners between Pakistan and Britain, but there were some international conventions on exchange of information. He said he had received a JIT report on Moazzam Ali, who was arrested in connection with the murder of Dr Imran Farooq, and it would be shared with media over the next few days.

Important operational decisions taken during minister’s visit to Karachi

In reply to a question, Chaudhry Nisar said it was unfair that after every tragic incident in Karachi, people started calling for resignation of the Sindh chief minister and the IG police. “We are right in the heat of battle against terrorism,” he said, adding that incidents of terrorism also took place in the US, Britain, France and Spain, but no one there sought resignation of anyone.

He said the demand for resignation was itself a move to create division among people, weaken their unity and pledge to defeat terrorists.

“The purpose of my visit is to get briefing on the Safoora Goth tragedy and extend condolence and sympathy to the Ismaili community,” the minister said.

Police, Rangers and secret agencies informed the interior minister about the progress made so far in the case and efforts being made to catch the culprits.

“Let the investigators do their work and whoever is found involved in the carnage, will be exposed and taken to task,” he said, adding that it was not a T20 or 50 overs match.

“The country has been in war since 2001 and suffered the worst circumstances. After coming to power in 2013, we first tried to overcome the situation through peaceful means, held negotiations, but the other side played double game which compelled us to launch a military operation,” he said.

He said the government had chalked out a policy against terrorism and security institutions were now implementing it. “I don’t say that terrorism has been eliminated because if a blast occurs it washes away efforts of many months by security agencies, but we are determined.”

He said that since the launch of Zarb-i-Azb in June last year, security agencies had carried out 10,000 operations on the basis of intelligence reports and arrested 36,000 terrorists.

Chaudhry Nisar claimed that the operations had resulted in improving the situation in Karachi, Balochistan and other parts of the country. A large number of terrorists had been killed, some crossed the borders and some went underground.

Chaudhry Nisar said he had asked the chief minister why members of the Ismaili community had not been provided security, adding that the CM was investigating the matter from this angle.

He said there were thousands of private security agencies in the country, including more than 300 in Karachi. The people working in these agencies are untrained and there was no transparency and that is why “we are working with the provincial governments and law-enforcement agencies to formulate a policy for registration of these agencies and issuance of arms licences”.

The interior minister said a high-level meeting would be held in Islamabad soon to take important decisions on ways to tackle terrorists.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2015

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