DERA ISMAIL KHAN, March 21: Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Maulana Fazlur Rehman said on Tuesday that conspiracies were being hatched to disturb peace in the province. Addressing a press conference, he said the bomb attack on a police patrol in Dera Ismail Khan on Sunday was part of a conspiracy. He said conspirators had committed the blast because they knew that the Taliban and tribesmen and people with religious leaning would be blamed for that.

Maulana Fazl, who heads JUI and is secretary-general of the MMA, alleged that President Musharraf was toeing the line of conspirators as he had also held the Taliban and tribesmen responsible for the terrorist act.

He said that providing security to people was the responsibility of the government, adding that no laxity on the part of police and administration would be tolerated.

The JUI leader announced that a ‘Mufti Mehmood conference’ would be held in Dera Ismail Khan on March 26 according to its schedule. He said the MMA had made all arrangements for the conference.

Maulana Fazl said that some elements were out to pitch tribesmen against the armed forces in tribal areas and added that the government should resolve the issue through talks.

He pointed out that religious parties had held a convention of tribesmen in Dera Ismail Khan to review the situation and chalk out a strategy to resolve the problem. But, he regretted, the army launched an unjustified operation in the Saidgay area in which hundreds of people were killed.

He called upon the government to call off the operation forthwith. He also asked the government to release all tribesmen detained for their alleged links with the Taliban or Al Qaeda.

Criticising the government’s security measures, he said there were about 1,300 and 200 police personnel only for Dera and Tank, respectively, and added that the number was too less keeping in view the population in the two districts.