'Quetta assailants were hired gunmen'

Interior Minister condemns Quetta firing incident, says that some elements are trying to weaken Pakistan.

KARACHI: Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said that “enemies” are trying to destabilise Pakistan by spreading unrest in Karachi and that the men who opened fire on the bus in Quetta were ‘hired’ gunmen, Express News reported Saturday.

Speaking to the media at Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, Malik condemned the Quetta incident and said some elements were trying to weaken the country.

The interior minister further said that earlier the ‘hired’ gunmen were involved in acts of violence in different parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).

Malik said that after the implementation of the 18^th amendment, it is the responsibility of the provinces to maintain peaceful conditions.

However, the Frontier Corps (FC) have been given additional authority to ensure peace and stability in the sensitive areas of K-P.

He said that the operations carried out in different parts of Karachi will cause unrest in the city, which is why the number of intelligence networks has been increased.

He concluded by saying that the miscreants detained in Islamabad belonged to the Ilyas Kashmiri group and were planning to target prominent people in the province.