Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said on Monday that the entire nation needs to develop consensus on the issue of eliminating terrorism.
He was addressing the media after a meeting with Khawaja Izharul Hassan, the opposition leader in the provincial assembly.
Hassan, a senior leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), survived an attempt on his life on Saturday in an attack which left his police guard and a passing-by child dead, along with one of the attackers.
The chief minister, accompanied by several Pakistan Peoples Party leaders and provincial ministers, called on Hassan and was received by MQM-P's Faisal Subzwari and Hassan as the latter's residence.
Expressing grief at the loss of life during the attack on Hassan, Shah said no one expects to be attacked after Eid prayers.
"We all need to find a solution [to combat this menace]," said the chief minister.
Replying to a query, he said the provincial government had asked the federal government to put several organisations and seminaries on a watch list but that is yet to be done.
When asked about recent cases where terrorists come from educated backgrounds, he said, "we will see if educational institutes have become breeding grounds for terrorists".
Talking about the issues surrounding the recently completed census, he said they have reservations about the provisional results.
"We can’t comprehend the meagre growth shown in Karachi’s population. We will consult other parties and come up with a united stance," he said.
Shah also delved into measures the census teams could have taken to make the exercise more transparent.
Addressing the media, Hassan thanked people for their well wishes and asked for prayers for the deceased and injured.
"This was a deliberate act of terrorism," he said, adding that the chief minister should head a collective movement against terrorism to get to the ‘masterminds’.
Later, the chief minister and Hassan, along with others, called on the family of the boy slain during the attack on Hassan on Saturday. They offered condolences and read a prayer for the deceased.
Earlier today, the Malir police raided a suspected terrorist hideout in the city's Kaneez Fatima Society which resulted in the death of a police official.
Malir SSP Rao Anwar, who headed the operation, said the suspect, Sarosh Siddiqui, escaped during the raid and a search for him is under way.
Anwar claimed Siddiqui is a senior figure of banned militant outfit Ansarul Shariah in Karachi and masterminded the attack on the MQM-P leader.
