ISLAMABAD, Aug 10: Pakistan Muslim League (N) on Saturday expressed grave concern over a recent spate of terrorist attacks on churches and said that these incidents had put a big question mark over the ability of the present regime to govern the country.

The government agencies, instead of dealing with law and order, had been assigned the task of controlling the opposition, PML(N) Media Adviser Siddiqul Farooq observed at a press conference.

Demanding that an interim government be set up immediately and the army must go back to the barracks, he said the government had totally failed in maintaining law and order in the country.

He pointed out that about 250 incidents of terrorism, including bomb blasts, had been recorded during the current military rule, resulting in 500 deaths and injuries to 1,300 persons.

He made a special mention of the attacks launched against Christian churches and schools, the first being against Bahawalpur Church on October 12, 2001, when gunmen killed 18 people. Five persons were killed in a grenade attack on the Diplomatic Enclave Church in Islamabad, on March 17, 2002, six persons lost their lives and five were injured in the attack on Murree Christian School earlier this week, only to be followed four days later by the grenade attack on the Taxila chapel, in which three nurses were killed and 42 people got injured.

He said it seemed that the rulers had now adopted the policy of creating disruption and lawlessness in the country, and a greater part of the intelligence network had been reserved for the security of the president and the governors and spying on the opposition.

He said if the intelligence agencies concentrated on their job, such incidents might not take place.