Intelligence should foil sabotage bids: Khursheed Shah

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Religious Affairs and Chief Whip in National Assembly Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah on Tuesday called upon intelligence agencies to foil the sabotage bids in the country and identify the perpetrators.

"Simply sending an information on a chit or writing a letter is not enough. Intelligence agencies in the country should have to identify and apprehend the culprits of terrorism", he said in National Assembly responding to a point of order by the MQM member Waseem Akhter.

The member had claimed that it was failure of the government and satisfactory steps were not being taken to thwart such threats.

The minister in response said, the government was not oblivious to killings in Quetta and is in touch with the community and the bereaved families.

"We are not sitting idle. Last time me and Prime Minister went to Quetta, met with aggrieved families and dismissed our own government and imposed Governor Rule to fulfil the demand of the protestors", he added.

Shah informed the House that burial of the deceased had started and the government is listening sincerely to the demand of the aggrieved families.

"But, terrorism is not the problem of the government or any single party, rather it is haunting whole the nation and calls for a collective strategy to curb this menace", he said.

The minister said it is the matter of human lives and killing of innocent people aches the heart of every Pakistani. Supreme Court is also looking into this matter and the government is also taking measures to secure the lives of the people.

He however underlined the importance of intelligence sharing as well as a vibrant role of intelligence agencies to find out the hidden faces behind such incidents as well as identifying culprits and helping bring them to book.