Government will not negotiate with any terrorist group: Rana Sanaullah

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said on Thursday that the government of Pakistan will not hold negotiations with any terrorist group.

Addressing a press conference, he stated that the decision was taken in the meeting of National Security Committee held earlier this week.

“As far as Afghanistan is concerned, its government has a structure there so we will hold talks with the leadership. We will ask it to implement the Doha accords which state that Afghanistan will not be used for any terrorist activity.”

He was of the view that complete implementation of the deal will resolve the global terrorism problem to a large extent.

Concrete steps being taken to stop terrorism: Rana Sanaullah

His comments come amid an uptick in terrorist activities throughout the country, especially after the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) announced an end of the ceasefire with the government.

On Wednesday, Sanaullah said that the government was taking concrete steps to stop terrorism in the country.

Sanaullah also said that the state’s efforts against terrorism could not be made public as it would compromise its success.

“But this should not be taken to mean that nothing is being done,” the minister said, adding that tremendous efforts against terrorism were underway and the nation should be assured about the matter.

Afghanistan raids on Islamic State hideouts leave eight dead

He added that the NSC decided to adopt “zero tolerance” policy against terrorism with “no mixed messages and no differentiation between good or bad terrorists”.

“Whoever is involved in terrorism is a terrorist,” he asserted.

Sanaullah further said that authorities would take pre-emptive measures against terrorist schemes and arrest those involved to prevent such incidents from occurring in the first place.

He said that the NSC had also decided that the provincial counterterrorism departments (CTDs) would be provided training by the federal government in order to make them more effective.

TTP claims killing two intelligence officials

On Wednesday, Tehreek-e-Taliban claimed the killing of a senior official of premier intelligence agency and another officer, the latest in a resurgence of jihadist violence shaking the country. The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officers were shot dead outside a hotel in Punjab on Tuesday, police said.