Defence Minister Khawaja Asif asserted there was a dire need for national consensus against terrorism across the country \u2014 similar how it was during operation Zarb-e-Azb in 2014 \u2014 after a Peshawar mosque suicide bomb attack left at least 100 lives and injured over 220 people.<\/p>\n
The defence minister, speaking during a National Assembly session, said the tragedy of the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar \u2014 which occurred in December 2014 \u2014 was still fresh in people’s minds and yet another gruelling incident of terrorism happened in the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cA successful war was fought against terrorism from 2010 to 2017,\u201d the federal minister said, adding that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz-led government, which was ruled from 2013-2018, “eliminated” the menace of terrorism.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeveral APS-like incidents occurred in KP [Khyber Pakhtunkhwa],\u201d Asif said, adding that the terrorism engulfed numerous precious lives.<\/p>\n
Referring banned terror organisations, the defence minister said that the house was told around two years ago that \u201cthese people\u201d could be negotiated but any conclusive decision could not be made on the matter. <\/p>\n
He came down hard on Imran Khan-led government for its instance of dialogue with the proscribed outfits.<\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing the Afghan war, thousands of the people were settled in Pakistan,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Stressing the need for national unity, the minister said that “we sowed the seeds of terrorism ourselves”.<\/p>\n
Peshawar attack is ‘against Pakistan’
\nInterior Minister Rana Sanaullah, while briefing the lower house of parliament regarding the Peshawar attack, said that the rescue operation had been completed and all the debris from the site had been lifted.<\/p>\n
He added that the Khorasani group of Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) claimed responsibility for the brutal suicide attack.<\/p>\n
He further said that 27 of the injured are critical, which means the death toll is expected to rise beyond the current 100.<\/p>\n
Condemning the attack, he said, \u201cThis attack is against Pakistan and its 22 crore people.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘No division between Lahore and Peshawar’
\nReacting to the comments of dissident PTI lawmaker Noor Alam Khan \u2014 who accused the forces of prejudice against the Pakhtoons \u2014 the security czar said that he understood and \u201csurrendered\u201d to the feelings of his fellow parliamentarian but \u201crejected\u201d the accusations of prejudice levelled by him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no discrimination between Lahore and Peshawar,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cAll of Pakistan has been victimised and every Pakistani is in mourning over the [Peshawar mosque] attack.\u201d<\/p>\n
Acknowledging that there had been an uptick in the number of attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), he said: \u201cThe KP police, army, FC and law enforcement agencies have been sacrificing their lives every day. Recently a police station in Bannu was made hostage.”<\/p>\n
However, he added, the perpetrators of “these attacks are the enemies of Pakistan”.<\/p>\n
In the past, Sanaullah said, there had been incidents of terrorism in Lahore which had claimed hundreds of lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur investigations have found that in 99% of the incidents, suicide bombers hailed from areas outside of Punjab, he said. \u201cFirst, these attackers are brainwashed and then sent all over the country to incite terror.\u201d<\/p>\n
Must triumph over terrorism
\nReflecting that Pakistan should never have helped train the Mujahideen in the past, the interior minister said: \u201cWe prepared them and now they have become terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also apprised parliament that the prime minister, army chief and ISI DG would come to the house to brief parliamentarians and seek their assistance. \u201cWe must triumph in the war against terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n
The state of terror incidents in the country paralleled the situation that existed a decade ago, he added. \u201cOur policy must also be the same as the one we adopted 9 years ago after the APS attack.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif asserted there was a dire need for national consensus against terrorism across the country \u2014 similar how it was during operation Zarb-e-Azb in 2014 \u2014 after a Peshawar mosque suicide bomb attack left at least 100 lives and injured over 220 people. The defence minister, speaking during a National Assembly session, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":112856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,23,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad","category-national","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112855"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112857,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112855\/revisions\/112857"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/112856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}