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| India-Pakistan |
| Terrorists planning to repeat Peshawar-type attack, warns Nisar |
| 2014-12-22 |
| ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan on Sunday indicated at stringent measures to counter the menace of terrorism in the country and said that terrorists are planning to carry out a Peshawar massacre-like activity again. Addressing a press conference, Nisar disclosed that intelligence reports point towards another brutal act that terrorists are planning to undertake especially after some convicted terrorists have been hanged. “We have to act before such an incident and nation should also realize that country is in state of war,” Nisar asserted and added that enemy is within the country rather from outside with the difficulty to identify them easily. The minister said that time has come to that whole nation should support armed forces with the contribution from all segments of the society to make the anti-terrorism operation successful. “People should be vigilant and keep any eye on terror suspects in their surroundings. There can be no better intelligence than a vigilant nation,” he said and added that people should be vigilant as sympathizers and supporters of terrorists live among us. He said that a universal phone number would be released soon so that people could notify security forces about any suspicious activity in their vicinity. He said that out-of-box solutions have to be employed and noted that “if we have to avenge the Peshawar massacre that guard should not be down”. He said that it would be simplistic thinking that operation against terrorism should be short-term goal but a long-term by executing it wisely avoiding the over-reaction in this regard. About the committee of parliamentary parties to devise national action plan against terrorism Nisar told the media that it has been mandated to do its work with a tight schedule of one week. “We are working day and night to finalize the recommendations and hopefully these would be presented in two to three days,” he stated. The interior minister said that all the religious seminaries are not involved in terrorism-related activities and claimed that 90 percent of madrassas had no connection to terrorism, based on intelligence reports. He, however, said that those found having any connection with terrorism-related activities are needed to be isolated and a strategy would soon come out to deal with them. He appreciated the role of ulema whose majority condemned the Peshawar brutal act in possible strongest terms. He also talked about the media and said that it would not be allowed to glorify the terrorism. “Red lines have been drawn and legislation will be done that media should black out their messages and their activities.” He also called upon mediahouse owners to play their role for a code of ethics in this regard. |
| Posted by:Steve White |