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Musharraf Reviews Security In Pakistan, Church Attack Probed

Rocco shakes hand with a wounded British national

ISLAMABAD, March 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf convenes a high level meeting Tuesday to discuss the security situation in Pakistan, as the Government set up a special task force to investigate the church attack, which left five people dead, news agencies reported.

The meeting will be attended by governors of all four provinces, provincial home secretaries, police chiefs and senior officials of the law enforcing agencies, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP) Monday.

It will discuss the law and order situation in the country and further security measures to be adopted during the current Muslim holy month of Moharram.

"Further steps will be taken to beef up the security around mosques, churches and other places of worship," reported AFP.

The meeting will also discuss the recent incidents in Karachi, where several people have been killed in sectarian violence, and Sunday's grenade attack in Islamabad, in which five people were killed and more than 40 injured.

Meanwhile, a Pakistani Interior Ministry statement said a special investigation team headed by a senior police officer would investigate the attack on the church. The team has been ordered to submit its report within three weeks.

A Pakistani spokesman, condemning the attack, said the government was determined to continue with its campaign against terrorism. He said a special task force of all the security agencies were set up to investigate the attack, reported BBC’s online news service.

Another high level team, headed by Additional Secretary Abdur Rashid Khan and assisted by the director general of the National Crisis Management Cell, Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, will investigate the causes of the incident.

The team will probe whether the law enforcement agencies performed their duties and made adequate security arrangements, the statement said.

It will also make recommendations for security arrangements for guarding the diplomatic enclave, including any necessary infrastructural and organizational changes.

"Investigation at the highest level has started. All technical help and facilities available have been put at their disposal," Interior Secretary Tasneem Noorani told the television.

In a separate related incident, a U.S. diplomat, wounded in the attack which killed his wife and daughter during a church service, was improving Monday, a doctor said.

Milton Green's wife Barbara and their teenage daughter were among five people killed when an attacker hurled up to eight grenades into an international church during Sunday morning prayers, attended by expatriates and Pakistani worshippers.

Green, whose son was also wounded, suffered several fractured limbs and was earlier listed in a serious condition at Islamabad's Polyclinic Hospital, deputy medical superintendent Zahid Hussain told AFP. Green is in charge of the embassy's information technology section.

His wife Barbara was working as the embassy's deputy human resources head, while their 17-year-old daughter was a senior at Islamabad's international school.

In another development, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Christina Rocca, Monday visited Americans wounded in the deadly church attack.

Rocca cut short a trip to India to make the visit and was accompanied by Pakistan's Information Minister Nisar Memon and U.S. ambassador Wendy Chamberlin, as she met some six Americans recovering in Islamabad's Shifa International Hospital.

Rocca landed in the Pakistani capital earlier Monday after calling off talks in New Delhi with Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh and National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra in the wake of Sunday's bloody attack, AFP reported.

Rocca said she would escort the bodies of the two Americans back to the United States.
"In order to accompany the fallen in Islamabad back to the United States, given this tragedy, I am curtailing my visit to New Delhi and proceeding at once to Pakistan," Rocca said in a statement issued in the Indian capital. "I thank my Indian counterparts for their understanding in this matter."

Since her arrival in Islamabad, Rocca has spent most of her time at the American embassy to assess the security situation.

A spokesman for the U.S. embassy said several Pakistani officials met Rocca at the chancery.

Although no request has been made for a meeting with President Musharraf, the spokesman did not rule out the possibility.

The chief of the U.S. Central Command, General Tommy Franks, has also arrived in Islamabad after reviewing the U.S.-led military operation in Afghanistan.

He has held talks with senior Pakistani military officials but a spokesman for Pakistan's foreign ministry declined to give any details.

Although people from eight different countries were hit in the grenade attack, Pakistani security officials believe the real target were Americans.

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