By IRNA,
Islamabad : Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that Prime Minister House was the target of the Saturday’s truck suicide bomb attack, which killed 53 people.
Gilani said the terrorists wanted to hit the Prime Minister House as important personalities including the President and the army chief were present to attend the dinner after joint session of the parliament.
“They could not do it due to tight security arrangements,” the PM told reporters at the Lahore Airport.
The Prime Minister said that it was a big tragedy and they fully condemned such attempts which are aimed at destabilizing democracy, damaging economy and weakening Pakistan.
“… our main focus is on maintaining law and order and to fight terrorism and extremism”.
To a question, he said that terrorists are doing such acts to highlight presence of nuclear weapons of Pakistan and added there is an effective command and control system of nuclear arms in Pakistan and terrorists can never become close to these weapons.
To another query, he said that the government has put a strong hand over the terrorists and the incident could be reaction of the frustration of the terrorists.
To a question regarding foreign investigators, he said that the matter would be looked into in case of need.
The Prime Minister said that tribal people in Pakistan are patriotic and none of them is terrorist, adding only a few foreign persons are involved in the terrorist acts in Pakistan.
Responding to a query, the Prime Minister rejected the impression that Pakistan is fighting war of the US, adding that 99% killings of such incidents are of Pakistanis, and said that Pakistan is working on its indigenous policy.