Following threats of suicide attacks, the government has put the Federal capital and all the provincial capitals under high security alert, said Advisor to Prime Minster on Interior Rehman Malik here on Tuesday.
"The law-enforcement agencies (LAEs) have arrested a suicide bomber from Nawshehra after which terrorist threats are being received, which forced us to declare security high alert", Malik said while talking to journalists after he attended the seminar on "Strengthen collaboration stakeholders on counter human trafficking", organised by the Ministry of Interior in collaboration with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
Official participants from (IOM), Pakistan, Ministry of Women Development, Ministry of Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis attended the seminar. The government announced temporary cease-fire in the troubled areas in view of the holy month of Ramazan, but when the insurgents attempted to disrupt the peace, the security forces had to use force, Rehman Malik said.
He said that the action was taken against the militants in Bajaur when they set a post office building on fire despite a temporary cease-fire. "No one would be allowed to take law in his hand and the government is committed to root out terrorism from Pakistan," he maintained. To a question, he said more or less 300,000 people were displaced from the tribal areas after action by the security forces against militants, out of which almost half had already returned to their homes.
To another question regarding the US ground and air attacks on civilians in the tribal areas, Rehman Malik said both the houses of Parliament had passed an unanimous resolution, condemning the attack by coalition forces in the tribal areas. He said that it was a clear message for the US that they should respect opinion of the people of Pakistan.
Earlier addressing the participants of the seminar, Malik said poor economic conditions were main causes of migration from Pakistan as people were leaving the country for best job opportunities and economic benefits. "Economic pressures encourage poverty-stricken people to adopt illegal means to go abroad, while the agents exploit this situation", he added.
Stressing the need for breaking the international network of human smugglers, he said that Pakistani authorities had been engaged in countering such crimes. As a result, the figure of 40,000 deported Pakistanis in 2005, had now been declined to 10,000, he added.