The Apex committee meeting on Friday decided to engage the Taliban’s interim government in Afghanistan for a decisive and targeted operation against Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other militant organisations, Aaj News reported.
Chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Governor House, the moot was called to consider steps to eradicate terrorism and upgrade the counter-terrorism department and police in the wake of the deadly terrorist attack in Peshawar that claimed over a hundred lives earlier this week.
KP’s caretaker Chief Minister Azam Khan, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, Punjab’s interim CM Mohsin Naqvi, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir, and officials of intelligence agencies attended the meeting.
The all-important huddle agreed on intelligence-sharing with the Afghan government and decided to enhance border patrolling to stop border crossings by anti-state agents from Afghanistan.
The meeting also decided to increase pressure on the Afghan government to act against the militants based on data shared by Pakistani authorities.
Addressing the moot, PM Shehbaz hailed the security agencies for their role in the fight against terrorism and vowed to fully eliminate the menace of terrorism from the country as it was done in the past.
2 terrorists killed in North Waziristan: ISPR
The Prime Minister said the Police Lines mosque blast is the deadliest incident after the APS incident of 2014.
“The whole nation is in shock,” he remarked.
He also announced a compensation amount of Rs2 million each for the martyrs’ families and Rs0.5 million for the injured in the Peshawar blast.
“I assure the nation that complete investigations of the incident will be made and the terrorists and their facilitators will be brought to justice,” he said.
PM Shehbaz censured the former PTI government, saying the party didn’t establish a forensic lab and the Safe City Project in the province where it had been ruling since 2013.
He said that the province received Rs417 billion in funding in the last 10 years under the National Finance Commission Award, but the amount was not used to improve the counter-terrorism department.
“There had been peace in the province if the KP government would have spent even half of the provided funds,” he commented.
The premier said he has also called an all-parties conference in Islamabad on Monday to consult with the political leadership of the country for a united national narrative and action against terrorism.
He urged all political leaders to set aside political differences as this is the time to get united for the greater national cause. He hoped that all political leaders will realize the sensitivity of the situation and will attend the APC.
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