ISLAMABAD, Sept 28: Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider has said that RAW’s (Indian Secret Service) hand cannot be ruled out in killings of seven members of Christian community in Karachi.

Mr Haider was replying to questions by newsmen after the passing out and certificate awarding ceremony of FIA’s 40 female immigration officers here on Saturday.

He said police is still investigating the matter but so far there has been no major breakthrough.

Replying to another question about train accident near Quetta, the minister said that a judicial commission has been formed to investigate the matter and also the Railway has launched its departmental inquiry. He said that the findings of these inquiries will be made public.

He said the government does not believe in hiding the truth from people and it has made public the judicial reports of D-12 incident and even it has made public Hamoodur Rehman Commission Report.

Mr Haider said that with the passing out of 40 FIA women immigration officer, a dream has come true.

The standard of immigration service, he said, was not up to the mark and Pakistan was considered a soft state and it was thus used by all kinds of elements as a transit point for other destinations. All this was happening because the training and commitment of FIA officials left much to be desired.

The modern immigration system, he said, would bring confidence of people of Pakistan and also increase the comfort level of other countries. He said the efforts by the government during the last three years have brought sanctity to the travel documents.

The government, he said, has created a database of all its citizens excluding Afghan refugees and two to three million illegal immigrants. On the basis of this new computerized identity cards are being issued by National Databased and Registration Authority (Nadra).

Mr Haider said so far 70 million ID cards have been issued and Nadra was producing 80,000 cards per day which will be increased to 100,000 cards per day. He said all these cards are being issued from one point in Islamabad while previously ID cards were being issued from 122 locations in the country as a result a lot of irregularities were found in the system.

He said in many cases six ID cards were found to be issued to one person and all these cards were also being misused during elections and for other transactions.

He said that to get a passport, the new ID cards is an essential requirement. The government, he said, is launching a machine readable passport and for this purpose Rs2.8 billion have been allocated. In new passport all the entries would be typed or printed and there would be no handwriting involved. Also the government is working on introducing a machine readable visa for Pakistan.

He said that with the help of US government a $5 million pilot immigration control project has been established at Karachi airport. From October next computers will be installed at Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar and Quetta airports and by March next all entry and exit points in the country will have the new system and linked together, he added. The minister said that this new system will enhance the security of the country.

He said the government has also passed a law to curb the human smuggling and for this purpose task has been assigned to FIA to bust human smuggling gangs.

The government, he said, has recruited the immigration officers through a transparent procedure while in the past people had to buy jobs. He said that the 40 girls recruited in the present batch were the holders of Masters and Bachelors degrees and were equipped with the knowledge of computers.

Pakistan, he said, has to go a long way to fight terrorism and it needed the help of friendly governments on a sustainable basis.

About the new role of the FIA he said that it will be an important focal point for counter-terrorism, fighting crimes and running the immigration services.

Later, talking to newsmen Mr Haider said that the image of Pakistan was tarnished by the people who took bribes from passengers. He said that such passengers were deported and the national airlines had to pay huge fines. He said that all those unscrupulous elements are now behind bars.

He said that FIA has been assigned a new role to fight terrorism and for this purpose a core group of 50 to 60 high profile agents is being created. The group will monitor communication systems of terrorist groups, check money laundering, conduct investigations and handle the prosecution.

The government, he said, is setting up a new school for counter-terrorism training which will be located in Islamabad. It will give training in investigations, bomb disposal, forensics and finger prints, money laundering and cyber crime. He said that a central database of finger prints will also be maintained at the FIA Headquarters.