Major General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry says Armed Forces focusing on fight against terrorism, respect all political parties n Over 70 operations being done per day to stem out terrorism n 137 officers and soldiers embraced martyrdom and 117 got injured since January 2023 n India did some 56 small scaled ceasefire violations along LoC n Ex-servicemen should avoid being political.

 

RAWALPINDI    -    Director General of the Inter-Ser­vices Public Relations (DG ISPR) Major General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said Tuesday that Pa­kistan Army along with civil and military intelligence agencies is conducting over 70 Intelligence Based Operations (IBOs) on the average across the country to stem out the recent wave of ter­rorism and resurgence. 

The spokesperson of the Armed Forces expressed these views while addressing a press confer­ence on the prevailing security situation, counterterrorism ef­forts and IBOs to contain terror­ism activities across the country. 

Major General Chaudhry said the security forces have so far conducted some 8,269 IBOs since 2023 and apprehended 1,378 terrorists and killed 157 among them during the anti-ter­rorism operations. He added that for the past many months, the terrorists activities were un­derway to destabilise peace in Balochistan and Khyber Pakh­tunkhwa (KP) provinces. 

"The security forces are fo­cusing on it. The civil and mili­tary law enforcement agencies (LEAs) have made wonderful measures. However, the Teh­reek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Baloch Separatist organiza­tions have been found behind all that," the DG ISPR said. 

He said since the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghani­stan, some 436 terrorist inci­dents took place that martyred 293 innocent civilians and in­jured 521 individuals. “Today, Alhamdulilah (Thanks to Allah) with the support of the nation, there is no ‘No Go Area’ in Paki­stan,” he added. 

The armed forces spokesper­son underlined that there were few terrorist groups making hostile activities whereas prop­er efforts were underway to ex­terminate them. He added that a large cache of illegal weap­ons, ammunition and ordnance was being recovered from the terrorists during various IBOs and further recovery was un­derway. 

The Peshawar Police Lines and Karachi Police Office (KPO) attacks showed the nefarious intentions of the country’s en­emies, whereas these terrorists had no contact with Islam, he added. 

He informed that Peshawar at­tack was done by Jamaat ul Ah­rar and the attacker hailed from Afghanistan. He added that the Peshawar attack facilitator was arrested who had trained the suicide attackers and received a sum of Rs7.5 million for facilita­tion and execution of the attack. “The attack on Peshawar Po­lice Lines was postponed twice due to lack of the people offer­ing prayer in the mosque. In the third time, the attack was exe­cuted in the presence of maxi­mum people,” the ISPR DG said. 

He added that the KPO attack facilitator Aryad Ullah Waheed alias Abdul Aziz was also ar­rested who received directions from TTP leadership and got Rs 3 million whereas he bought a car from that money to execute the attack.

The ISPR DG mentioned that during the anti-terrorism op­erations since January 2023, some 137 officers and soldiers have embraced martyrdom and 117 got injured. He said that the nation paid tribute to these brave sons of the soil. He add­ed that the intelligence agen­cies’ day and night efforts had helped to arrest Baloch terror­ist commander Gulzar Alam alias Shambey. 

Pakistan Armed Forces’ ef­forts were not hidden to any and if compared to the world forces under which circumstances and resources it fought against ter­rorism, there was no precedent to it, he added. “Our fight will continue till termination of the last terrorist,” he vowed. 

Highlighting the Western Bor­der Management measures, the ISPR DG said almost 98 percent border fencing along 2,611 kilo­meters Pak-Afghan internation­al border was completed and 85 percent fencing was completed along Pak-Iran border. 

He added that 85 percent con­struction of forts along Pak-Af­ghan and 33 percent along Pak-Iran border was completed. During this entire process, he said many soldiers of Pakistan Army embraced martyrdom to complete fencing. He added that 65 percent area in the new­ly merged tribal districts was cleansed from mines as some 98,000 mines have been neu­tralized. 

The ISPR DG said ulemas and media have played their com­plete role in resisting terror­ism which was appreciable as they fully rejected their narra­tive. He also shed light on the measures for enduring peace and socio-economic uplift of the terrorism-impacted areas of the country. 

Major General Ahmed Shar­if said socio-economic mea­sures were pivotal to restore the development in the disas­ter hit areas. Some 3,654 devel­opment projects worth Rs162 billion have been initiated in­cluding construction of mar­kets, education and health facil­ities and were under execution, he added. He said the Army ful­ly supported youth employ­ment initiatives in the terror­ism-impacted areas whereas 14,000 local youth were induct­ed in Army and FC. Some 1,492 individuals are studying in the Army educational institutions, he added. 

In Balochistan, he said there has been improvement in law and order situation whereas the terrorists want to harm Chi­na Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and other development projects that were underway. 

According to DG ISPR, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Syed Asim Munir reiterates that the “real power rests with the peo­ple.” He highlighted that Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Syed Asim Munir had made cut in Army budgets for supporting quick response initiatives. He added that security was provid­ed to these projects. 

He said that the Reko Diq Mine project was an important initia­tive that would play its role in the uplift of the province. 

The ISPR DG also underlined that Pakistan Army also pro­vided relief to quake-hit Tur­kiye and Syria. The Army’s Ur­ban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams alongwith Pakistan Air Force and Navy also took part in the rescue and relief efforts whereas the governments of Turkiye and Syria acknowl­edged their efforts. 

He also mentioned the Paki­stan Army’s austerity measures and said, after detailed review of operational and non-opera­tional expenses, reduction has been made in petroleum, ration, equipment and other non-oper­ational expenses. Through the use of technology, tech-based simulation exercises instead of outdoor drills and online meet­ings of the staff were adopted to contain expenses, he added. 

He said, “After two decades, we as a nation have bravely fought against terrorism and victoriously continued to fight with great determination. We will have to play our individual and collective role in sustaining peace.”

Responding to media queries, he said the counterterrorism operations were based on four components of clear, hold, build and transfer. The forces used to go in an affected area, terminate terrorists, revive socio-econom­ic status and transfer the area to civil administration. 

The DG ISPR said that the government had realised to move towards through endur­ing peace by build and trans­fer. He added that hostile agen­cies were working and would be making all out efforts to fail it. 

Replying to a query pertain­ing to India, he said Indian ag­gression and false statements could not change history. Kash­mir’s disputed status was glob­ally recognised and could not be changed. It was never an inte­gral part of India, nor it will re­main its part, he added. 

The COAS, he said first visit­ed the Line of Control (LoC) and said that Pakistan Armed Forc­es could defend every inch of the country and could take war to the enemies’ home. He add­ed that Pakistan Armed Forces were the battle hardened forc­es after fighting war against ter­rorism for two decades and its officers rendered huge sacrific­es. 

In 2019, Pulwama Attack was orchestrated and Indian Air Force intruded Pakistani airspace and the Pakistan Air Force’s preparedness was ev­ident, he said. He also com­mented on Eastern Border sit­uation and said, the situation at the Eastern Border remained peaceful due to Pakistan-India Director General Military Oper­ations (DGMOs) Ceasefire 2003 implementation and the 2021 dialogue on the issue. 

He informed that Pakistan al­ways cooperated with Unit­ed Nations Military Observ­er Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) and gave full access to LoC but India did not give such access to any. 

He elaborated that 16 visits of foreign media and the OIC Sec­retary General’s special visits to LoC were organised and no such access was given by India. “India did some 56 small scaled ceasefire violations, 25 tactical air violations and six quadcop­ter were hunted down by Paki­stan Army along the LoC. Paki­stan Army is all time ready and determined to fight against In­dian tactics,” he added. 

Referring to social media cam­paign against institutions, he said the Constitution gave free­dom of expression under some legal caveats. He added that the discussion on social media against state institutions was senseless, unconstitutional and illogical. 

He said that TTP and Pakistan Armed Forces had a relation­ship of kinetic operations. The decision of dialogue with TTP was made by the then govern­ment, he added. 

He added that these hos­tile and inimical elements and agencies have no faith and re­ligion as they attack all with­out any discrimination includ­ing law enforcement agencies (LEAs), ulema, forces and me­dia etc. 

He commended that the KP Police had rendered huge sac­rifices and the nation must ac­knowledge it as the armed forc­es had acknowledged it. 

He added that Army was sup­porting for training and joint in­telligence-based operations and Intelligence sharing with KP Po­lice. 

Responding to another que­ry, he said the armed forces vet­eran organisations were for the welfare of veterans and raise their issues. “The veteran or­ganisations are not commercial or political organisations. The ex-servicemen should avoid be­ing political,” he added.

When asked about the influ­ence of former Army chief Gen­eral Bajwa on Pakistan army, he said everyone has the right to make analysis, however the real focus of power for Pakistan army is “people of Pakistan.”

He also dismissed the no­tion that Pakistan army is in­clined towards particular po­litical narrative or politician and said, “All political leaders and political parties are re­spectable for Pakistan army”. He also made it clear that Pa­kistan army is not inclined to­wards any political narrative and focusing on its profession­al responsibilities.

When asked about mas­sive propaganda on social media against Armed Forc­es, DG ISPR regretted this trend against Armed Forces and said a few elements in­tentionally or unintentional­ly are pushing forward the In­dian agenda against Pakistan. He said Pakistan army wel­come positive criticism how­ever Armed Forces could not be suppressed through decep­tion and bullying.