HYDERABAD: Security around shines and other important places is being tightened in Hyderabad district in the wake of the Saturday suicide attack that left scores of devotees dead and many more wounded at the Shah Noorani shrine in Khuzdar, Balochistan, Hyderabad range DIG Khadim Rind has said.

Security for the Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai Urs celebrations, commencing at Bhitshah on Tuesday, has already been beefed up, he said while speaking to newsmen at a ceremony held at the police headquarters here on Sunday.

DIG Rind said that the number of walkthrough gates at the Bhitai shrine had been increased from three to 13 while stringent security measures would be taken for other events to be held on the sidelines of theUrs.

Many Survivors return home Many of the bombing survivors who had left Hyderabad to visit the Noorani shrine returned home early on Sunday. Two of them were wounded in the incident and admitted to the Civil Hospital Karachi, Shamsa Noman, who identified them as her husband, Mr Noman and his younger brother, Aman.

The devotees who visited the shrine included members of different families living in the Phulelli area.

Mr Nauman`s paternal uncle, Mr Dilshad, said that some 55 people, including women and children, had gone to the shrine by a bus. Some of their neighbours were also part of the group.

Parties condemn attack Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan-Noorani (JUP-N) president Dr Sahibzada Abul Khair Mohammad Zubair, who also heads the Milli Yakjehti Council, had urged the government to ensure complete medical care for the wounded victims of the ShahNoorani shrine carnage. He also called for a review of the security arrangements for shrines.

Strongly condemning the attack in his statement, Dr Zubair observed that anti-Pakistan and anti-Islam forces wanted to foment sectarian violence by attacking shrines, mosques, seminaries, imambargahs and religious figures.

He recalled that terrorists had in the past targeted many other shrines including that of Hazrat Abdullah Shah Ghazi. He regretted that the attackers had not been arrested and punished.

`Until networks of their [terrorists`] facilitators, who are sitting ingovernment, are disbanded, effective action against terrorists cannot produce result s,` he said.

The Pakistan Sarzameen Party (PSP) Hyderabad organising committee also condemned the incident and appealed to the government to take appropriate security measures to avert recurrence of such incidents in future.

Condemning the act of terrorism, Sindh Taraqqi-pasand Party chairman Dr Qadir Magsi said that elimination of terrorism summoned steps `free of expediencies`.

In his statement, he observed that places like imambargahs, churches, educational institutions, mosques,shrines, national institutions and police stations were not safe.

`Concrete steps should be taken to make the ongoing operation against terrorism result-oriented,` he said.

He described the Muttahida Qaumi Movement as `more dangerous than the Al Qaeda, Tehreek-iTaliban Pakistan, Haqqani Group and Lashkar-i-Jhangvi`, and said it was surprising that why it was not being banned. He said people were right in considering federalist and ruling parties facilitators of terrorists.

Qaumi Awami Tehreek president Ayaz Latif Palijo also condemned the suicide bombing and said thatterrorists wanted to push the country back to the stone age. He termed the incident `a clearly example of security lapse and incompetence of security agencies`.

Mr Palijo was speaking to his party workers from Qasimabad. He said terrorists` nurseries were established during dictatorial regimes for international imperialist forces, adding that terrorists were targeting religious and educational institutions as well as political figures at the behest of the imperialist forces.

He observed that enemies of Pakistan and humanity carried out the attack to sabotage the ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor project.