World

Pakistan to target rebel hotspots

by Sanjay Jha | September 21, 2008 at 09:54 pm

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Newly elected Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has vowed to root out the "cancer" of terrorism in Pakistan.

Before leaving for New York to attend the UN General Assembly session, where he will meet US President George W Bush on the sidelines, Zardari held high level meeting to discuss the security situations in the Paksitan. He also condoled the death of Czech envoy. Newly elected President is facing a mammoth task to contain terrorists in the Pakistan.

However Pakistan has turned down FBI offer to help probe incident.

Pakistan's government has pledged to take targeted action against militants, a day after a suicide bomb killed 53 people in the capital, Islamabad.

Interior Ministry adviser Rehman Malik said raids would be carried out in some "hotspots" near the Afghan border.

Earlier, the authorities revealed that a truck laden with 600kg of high-grade explosives had rammed the Marriott Hotel security gate before blowing up.

Rescuers have been combing the wreckage for survivors and bodies.

The blast left 266 people with injuries.

Although most of those killed were Pakistani, the Czech ambassador and two US defence department workers were among the dead.

The Pakistani Prime minister said that the war against terrorism will continue and such incidents are due to reaction of terrorists' frustration.

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Sunday that terrorists had intended to target parliament and the Prime Minister House where key figures of the country were present after attending a joint parliamentary session.

Talking to journalists at the Lahore Airport after his arrival from Islamabad, the prime minister said terrorists wanted to target the main figures of the country, who were present in the PM House to attend an Iftar party after the joint session of parliament. However, he said it couldn't be done due to the tight security arrangements.

When asked if terrorists could target the nuclear installations, Gilani said they were carrying out such activities to highlight the presence of nuclear weapons of Pakistan. He asserted the nuclear programme of the country was in safe hands and couldn't be targeted.

To a query if Pakistan would seek the help of foreign investigators, he said that the preliminary report on the incident would be available by Sunday evening and the matter of acquiring help from abroad would be consulted if there was any need for that.