KARACHI, Feb 27: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement has condemned the terrorist attack on an Imambargah in Rawalpindi in which nine people were killed and 16 were injured.

The party chief Altaf Hussain has deplored the dastardly terrorist attack and demanded of the president to bring the culprits to justice.

Sympathising with the affected families, he said that the government should step up the investigation and give exemplary punishment to the criminals.

City chief of the Jamat-i-Islami, Dr Mairajul Huda Siddiqui, has also deplored the terrorist attack on the Imambargah and said the military government had failed to protect the life and property of citizens.

He said the incident was part of the conspiracy to prepare the ground for US action against Iran. He demanded resignation of the interior minister.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has also condemned the killings and termed the crime as ‘a cowardly attack on Islam and Pakistan’.

In a statement issued in Karachi on Wednesday, secretary general of the party, Mairaj Mohammed Khan, said that “people must understand that whichever group or party is responsible for this, it is actually working for the imperialist — Zionist lobby which is conspiring to create conflict between the Shias and the Sunnis”.

He appealed to both the sects to further heighten their vigilance and strengthen bonds of unity in order to defeat such conspiracies.

Chief of the Muhajir Qaumi Movement, Afaq Ahmed, deploring the terrorist attack, said that it was part of a conspiracy to exacerbate sectarian hatred in which many people had already been killed.

He expressed the concern that despite the government’s crackdown on some organisations to curb religious and sectarian fanaticism, there was no letup in such activities.

He said the incident had exposed the ineffectiveness of the measures taken by the government.