Pak govt asks spy agencies to shift offices to 'safe' places

Apprehending more attacks, Pakistani government has directed its intelligence agencies to shift their offices from congested residential and commercial areas to "safe" places, as investigators were quizzing two suspects arrested in connection with the strike on ISI regional office.

The direction to all the three major intelligence agencies -- ISI, IB and CID -- comes in the light of Wednesday's suicide attack on the ISI provincial headquarters in Lahore which left 35 people dead, including seven key ISI personnel, a senior CID official said.

"Since ISI has many enemies within and outside Pakistan in the present circumstances it will have to change its strategies accordingly," he said, disclosing that the agencies have been told to follow the pattern of American FBI, which mostly sets up makeshift offices.

The ISI building, which was hit with a 100 kg explosives stashed in a vehicle, was located in the hub of commercial activities near the famous Mall Road.

"The intelligence agencies had earlier also been given warnings to shift their offices, but they did not pay heed. But now they have been given a directive," the official said.

Meanwhile, police said it was quizzing two prime suspects, who had been arrested in connection with the blast.

Tariq Salim, Inspector General of Punjab Police, said that the two had been picked up on some leads. Lahore police have registered a case against six people for the attack.

"We are looking for accomplices of the people who carried out the attack and who facilitated the strike," SSP (operations) Chaudhry Shafiq Ahmed said.

However, other sources said, law enforcement agencies were groping in the dark as all three terrorists involved in the firing-cum suicide attack had been killed.

The police have hardly any leads, the sources said, as was the case in earlier strikes in Manawan police training centre near here and attack on Sri Lankan cricketers.

But as in the case of earlier two attacks, law enforcement agencies immediately after the blast launched crackdown on Afghans and Pathans of NWFP.

"We have taken some 60 people mostly Afghan into custody," a police officer said.

Police investigation have been hampered by loss of CCTV cameras extensively installed in the police rescue centre and ISI buildings. The cameras were located in the parts of the two buildings which suffered maximum damage in the blast.

An ISI officer, Col Aamir Baig, who was trapped under the rubble of the partially damaged ISI building, was laid to rest at his native town Chakwal. The other injured officer Col Zulifqar Ahmed was stated to out of danger.

Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for the deadly bomb attack, saying it was revenge for the army's current offensive in the country's NWFP.

Hakimullah Mehsud, a deputy of Tehrik-e-Taliban chief Beitulllah Mehsud, told news agencies in telephone calls that Lahore suicide attack "was in response to the Swat operations where innocent people have been killed."

Meanwhile, army released a transcript of what it claimed was an intercepted wireless calls of Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan in which he sought help from militants in Waziristan to take revenge on military commanders in Punjab.

"We want Generals and Colonels from Punjab to feel the pain of people suffering in Swat," the message said.

Earlier, an unknown group calling itself Tehrik-e-Taliban Punjab had claimed the responsibility for the attack.

Pakistan government also put bounties on the heads of 21 top Taliban militants operating in the Swat Valley with radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah, the architect of uprising in Swat, heading the list with a reward of five million rupees.

The government drew up the 'rogue list' and published it along with their mugshots in all leading newspapers in the country, saying these terrorists were wanted "dead or alive" as its military operation gained ground in Swat.

On the rogue's list are Taliban's spokesman Muslim Khan and along with three other prominent Taliban faces in Swat -- commander Qari Mushtaq, Mehmood Khan and Bukht Farzand -- each with a reward of three million rupees on their heads.