Quetta attack: 'Consistent policy needed against all banned outfits'

KARACHI: A uniform, consistent policy is needed to curb terrorism and avoid tragedies like the one that recently took place in Quetta. Leverage that is given to certain groups by the state must end in order to make the National Action Plan (NAP) bear fruit.

Talib Abbas Raza, the general secretary of Civil Progressive Alliance, Pakistan shared these views at a protest organised by the group to condemn Monday’s attack in Quetta.

“Banned outfits are still operating despite the NAP,” he said. Even in Karachi, a member of a previously banned outfit filed nomination papers for the NA-258 by-election despite the fact that banned groups can’t resurface under new names, he asserted.

According to him, attacks like those at the police training camp, killings of Hazara women [in Quetta] and the blast at Dar-e-Abbas Imambargah [in Karachi] are a consequence of the operations of banned outfits.

“A uniform, consistent policy is needed against all banned outfits to make NAP successful and end terrorism,” said Raza.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2016.