Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif said on Tuesday that the government has decided to take tough action against private militias. Meanwhile government during the federal cabinet meeting has decided to play active diplomatic role at international level against Indian aggression at Line of Control (LOC) along with continuing the Karachi operation at all cost. The cabinet decided that the action against the terrorists would continue till the elimination of last terrorist from Pakistani soil. The cabinet decided that the Karachi operation will continue without any pressure or interference. Prime Minister said Operation Zarb-e-Azb and the Karachi Operation launched with the consensus of all political parties have been progressing successfully. He said the government was committed to implementing the National Action Plan (NAP) in its essence to ensure that benefits of its success should reach every nook and corner of the country. He emphasised that those involved in sectarianism would be dealt with an iron hand as he reiterated that those who were disseminating hatred, inciting militancy and encouraging terrorism would not spared. He said terrorists played with the lives of the people and humanity by committing unforgivable crimes that could not be tolerated.
The past few months, though, have passed without any major incident after the horrific Shikarpur attack in early January. Since then, two key Laskhar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) leaders, Malik Ishaq and Balochistan head Usman Kurd, have been killed. While questions remain over the lack of action against the LeJ’s political front, the Ahl-e-Sunnah wal Jammat (ASWJ), there has been much more progress against sectarian terrorists in the last six months than in the last decade. The interior minister has also confirmed that the government will be coming up with the first clear, uniform list of banned organisations. We do wonder, though, why such a list had never been prepared before despite promises to the effect. And the bigger question is: who will make it onto the list? And what will be done about the massive infrastructure of banned organisations? Nisar has spoken about the need to target the madressah network – minus ‘good’ madressahs – but there has been limited action on this front. The interior minister is positive that terrorism is on the way down. In 2014, there were 1,640 terrorist attacks. This year, in eight months, there have been 695. This suggests that Operation Zarb-e-Azb is having an impact. What is not clear is what kind of acts are included in the combined number that the interior minister presented. The specific question being: are Baloch separatist attacks lumped together with religiously motivated terrorism?
pk.shafaqna.com
