News
Saturday, March 05, 2011
Interior minister insists there is no security lapse
Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik, while reacting to parliamentarians’ terse remarks regarding poor law and order situation in the country, said on Friday that Federal Minorities Affairs Minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, was assassinated by terrorists and that there was no security lapse.
Malik claimed that Bhatti did not follow the approved security procedure, which provided attackers a chance to kill him. “If a minister does not want to keep security detail, then who will be held responsible for his/her murder,” he questioned.
He told the House that he himself was at the top in the hit list of the banned outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. “I am at the top of their list. Sherry Rehman is next to me, and Fauzia Wahab is at number three. Next time you may not find me here,” the irate Malik said while winding up debate in the National Assembly over the assassination of Bhatti.
The interior minister also called for forging unity to protect the future of coming generations and achieving lasting peace and prosperity in the country. “Security and foreign policy are the two issues on which we need to be united. If you would not join hands today, you would have Taliban and extremists here,” he said.
Malik claimed that he never said that Bhatti was responsible for his own assassination, adding that the slain minister should have availed the security being provided by the government.
“There was not a security lapse on behalf of the government or police,” he insisted and said, “If the investigation teams find any security lapse I would resign.”
Later, Malik, while talking to reporters at his office, said that the slain minister’s driver, Gul Sher, had been taken into protective custody because of contradiction in his and the eyewitnesses accounts.
The minister further said that the investigation team had not reached any conclusion until now. “They are clueless so far. But there is certainly a good development in the investigations into the murder case,” he maintained.
To a question, he said he would look into the contents of the first investigation report (FIR) because some people who were not on the crime scene had been shown as witnesses in the report.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk