HYDERABAD, Feb 25 The Jafria Alliance Pakistan chief Allama Abbas Kumaili on Wednesday condemned target-killing of members of Shia community, particularly in Dera Ismail Khan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Quetta and Parachinar, and said that the government had failed to curb sectarian terrorism.

Mr Kumaili said at a news conference at the press club that Shia and Sunni communities had no differences but a particular group was targeting Shias to spark sectarian riots.

Mr Kumaili said that the killings were part of a planned conspiracy aimed at disintegrating the country under a foreign agenda. He wondered when the government had gone out of its way to restore peace in Swat why it had not paid any attention to Parachinar which had been torn apart by sectarian strife over the past 18 months. Why no operation had been launched in Dera Ismail Khan, he asked.

He said that exponents of democracy had been propagating that the sectarian terrorism would come to an end after democracy was restored but contrary to their claims it had increased manifold under the democratic regime.

He cautioned the government against tension gripping Khairpur, Sindh, and urged the authorities to take steps to defuse it. He ridiculed a proposal put forward by a federal minister, to segregate Shia and Sunni zones in one city.