Army commanders vow to turn the tide against terrorism

The Army’s top commanders have vowed to pursue the goals set by the National Security Committee aimed at turning the tide against the terrorism, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Saturday.

Chief of the Army Staff General Syed Asim Munir chaired the 257th Corps Commanders’ Conference held at General Headquarters (GHQ) on Friday.

The forum reviewed domestic and regional environment including external and internal security challenges Pakistan confronts. 

The forum affirmed that the military leadership is cognizant of the full spectrum of the challenges and it resolves to shoulder its constitutionally mandated responsibilities with support of the resilient people of Pakistan. 

The forum reiterated the commitment of the armed forces to fully support national responses against internal and external threats. It highlighted that while security forces are undertaking intelligence-based operations in areas along western border, there was a need to adopt a whole of the nation and whole of the government approach to eradicate the menace of terrorism on long-term basis. 

This focused counter-terrorism campaign against terrorists as approved by the government, through whole of the system approach will lead towards eradicating permissive factors of terrorism, extremism and instability in the country. 

The forum expressed its assurance to pursue the goals set by National Security Committee (NSC) to turn the tide against terrorism through the coordinated application of all elements of national power.

It may be mentioned here that during an in-camera briefing to members of the National Assembly on Friday, General Asim Munir had acknowledged that a strategy to engage with terrorists had allowed them to regroup in the tribal areas, before the country’s political and military leadership agreed to revisit the anti-terrorism strategy. The Army Chief was apparently referring to the policy devised and followed by the military and political leadership under the PTI regime, following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021.

In a clear shift from the policy of the previous regime, Friday’s in-camera sitting was told that a three-pronged plan — deter, dialogue and development — to root out terrorism was already underway, after lawmakers expressed serious concerns over the resurgence of terrorist groups.

The agreement came after the military leadership discussed recent acts of terrorism across the country and shared details of efforts being made by security forces aimed at eliminating terrorism, maintaining internal security and defending Pakistan from external threats.

The two-hour in-camera briefing contained updates about the country’s current security issues and the Army’s anti-terror operations in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Gilgit-Baltistan and other parts of the country.

During the briefing, General Asim Munir also apprised parliamentarians about plans of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and security forces’ endeavours to counter them.

The director general of Inter-Services Intelligence, Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum in his briefing apprised lawmakers about the connivance of hostile intelligence agencies with terrorist groups.

The briefing was followed by a one-and-a-half-hour-long Q&A session.
 

Reporter Ahmad Mansoor