ISLAMABAD: Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (DG-ISPR) Major General Babar Iftikhar on Monday said the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) does not need to come to Rawalpindi and if they do come “we will offer them chai pani [refreshments]”. In a press briefing, DG Major General Babar Iftikhar said that he always avoided responding to political statements, however, he clarified that the allegations being levelled against the armed forces were baseless.
He added that the armed forces performed their duties in a responsible manner and maintained absolute neutrality during general elections.
He said that the armed forces should not be dragged into political matters.
In case of any suspicions, the concerned institutions should be contacted to resolve the issues, he added.
He further revealed that the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa would visit Quetta this week.
He said that last 10 years were a challenging time in every aspect for Pakistan, however, the coronavirus pandemic and locust attack alone put the country’s food security and economy in severe danger apart from security issues.
Despite all these challenges, he said, coordination among the state institutions, the armed forces and intelligence agencies and most importantly the Pakistani people, helped the country overcome these challenges.
He said that no organised terrorist infrastructure exists in Pakistan as the country fought successfully against the internal and external security challenges.
On western border, he said a border management system has helped the country to improve its law and order situation.
Giving details on progress being made on fencing Pak-Afghan and Pak-Iran borders, he said that 83 percent task of fencing of 2,611 km Pak-Afghan border was achieved and the rest would be completed by mid of current year.
Thirtyseven per cent fencing work on the Pak-Iran border was also completed and the rest would likely be completed by next year.
He said more than 482 forts had been completed out of planned 1,068, and cross-border movements through border terminals increased by 33 percent due to border control measures.
Anti-smuggling operations and notified crossing points helped the government generate a revenue of Rs48 billion in the last six months, he added.
He maintained border management system also reduced the incidents of IEDs by 16 percent and adjacent areas of border areas also witnessed a 55 percent reduction in cross border terrorism in Pakistan.
He further revealed that Indian armed forces committed 3,097 ceasefire violations on LOC and their unprovoked firing left 28 innocent civilians martyred and 257 wounded last year.
There was a surge in the incidents of ceasefire violations from 2014 to 2020 the from Indiam side.
He said India’s nefarious campaign against Pakistan in last 15 years tried to damag Pakistan’s integrity in six domains -terrorism, economic domain, coercive diplomacy, fomenting chaos, Kashmir cause, and social issues.
He said that India had used non-kinetic domain or fifth generation and hybrid warfare after the failure of kinetic threat, and Pakistan had brought proofs of Indian terrorism before the world through a dossier.
Indian terrorism in Pakistan also came on surface in recently launched report of the EU DisinfoLab.
He further said that to maintain peace in the world, around 1,100 terrorists of Al-Qaeda were either apprehended or killed. Intelligence sharing took place with more than 70 countries.
Pakistan had to face $126 billion in financial losses, and made sacrifices of 83,000 armed forces personnel and civilians in the war against terrorism.
He said Pakistan Army is combating anti-state forces successfully in the KP and Balochistan and as a result 199 development projects worth Rs601 billion have been kick-started in Balochistan, and other 831 development projects worth Rs31 billion in KP.
He said Pakistan had timely responded through the NCOC in controlling COVID-19 and its strategy was acknowledged by the world.
He said Indian aggression in Kashmir was cleverly kept in hiding from the international watch, while an unfounded propaganda was unleashed in favour of revocation of Article 370 of India’s constitution.
He said the EU parliamentarians were invited to visit the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir in personal capacity, but they were portrayed as EU representatives.
Highlighting measures taken in the security domain, Major General Babar Iftikhar said achievements in the last one decade were consolidated by adopting “whole of nation” approach under Operation Radd-ul-Fasad.
He said terrorists' support base, their facilitators, abettors, and financiers were eliminated. He said with the grace of Almighty Allah, today no organised terrorist infrastructure exists in Pakistan.
He said over 371,000 intelligence based operations were conducted under operation Radd-ul-Fasad.
Major General Babar Iftikhar said terrorist incidents declined by 45 percent, the law enforcement agencies averted over 50 percent terrorist threats in last one year, while the number of suicide attacks was reduced by 97 percent.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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