Pak security agencies ill-equipped, incapable of handling Karachi type violence : Malik

Karachi, Jan.2 (ANI) : Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik has admitted that law enforcement agencies in the country are incapable of handling wide scale unrest as they are ill-equipped and untrained to counter such activities.

Addressing businessmen at the Federation House here, Malik called on the business community of the country to help the government cater to the needs of the people and enhance the capacity and the capability of the security agencies.

"Certain powers are bent on disintegrating Pakistan by destabilising the country through cowardly acts, and their prime target is to attack the economy of the country by targeting the financial capital," Malik said while referring to the suicide attack on a Muharram procession in Karachi, in which over 45 people were killed.

He said the police and the Rangers were mobilised immediately after the blast, but failed to control the post-blast riots for lack of training and equipment, The Daily Times reports.

Malik also assured the businessmen at the meeting that the government would assist all the traders affected by the riots and said that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has already announced a billion rupee fund for this purpose. (ANI)