ISLAMABAD, March 18: A Corps Commanders Conference here on Monday expressed its serious concern over the law and order situation and called for its definite improvement.

“President Gen Pervez Musharraf, who presided over the conference, said the current state of law and order was just unacceptable to him and needed a definite improvement,” said President’s Press Secretary, Maj-Gen Rashid Qureshi.

He told Dawn that Corps Commanders “have expressed their dissatisfaction” over the law and order situation and asked as to why no culprit involved in the church attack was arrested so far.

Maj-Gen Rashid Qureshi, who is also the Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations, said that a number of ideas were discussed at the conference to drastically improve the law and order situation across the country.

The president, he pointed out, will again be presiding over a meeting here on Tuesday to discuss and adopt what he termed “real hard measures” to strictly enforce laws and prevent terrorist attacks from taking place. The meeting will be attended by all the four governors, minister for interior, other senior officials of the federal and provincial governments and the heads of law enforcement agencies.

He said the Corps Commanders Conference called for taking stringent and tough measures to ensure law and order and peace in the provinces.

According to informed sources, the conference did not rule out the possibility of a foreign hand being involved in the Sunday’s attack on the church.

The initial investigations revealed that the hand-grenades found were of a “foreign origin” and that one of the culprits was clean-shaven and wearing pant and shirt, the conference was told. A British eyewitness had seen the face of the clean-shaven young man who threw hand-grenades on the church.

The conference, which was also participated by Principal Staff Officers (PSOs), deliberated at length on the internal security situation as well as the situation on the international borders, Line of Control (LoC) and the Working Boundary.

The president emphasized the need for being vigilant and alert in the present scenario. “While our troops are fully alive to the threat by the enemy, we cannot lower our guard to the internal security which is also of paramount importance,” he added. He expressed his dismay at the recent lapse of security in Islamabad which resulted in the loss of innocent lives.

The participants expressed their resolve to meet any threat to the country, internal or external, with an iron hand and said that nobody will be allowed to jeopardise the solidarity of Pakistan.