PM Shehbaz, army chief discuss security situation

Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Syed Asim Munir called on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at the PM Office on Thursday and discussed prevailing law and order situation amid spike in terrorist incidents in the country, Express News reported.

Gen Asim briefed the premier on the security situation of the country during the meeting.

Sources said the National Security Committee (NSC) meeting, scheduled to be held tomorrow (Friday), also came under discussion during the huddle.

The high-powered NSC meeting will take a comprehensive review of the strategy in the wake of the ongoing surge in terrorist attacks.

Military officials will brief the NSC meeting participants on the rise in terrorism incidents, situation along Pak-Afghan border and implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP), sources added.

Apart from this, issues related to formulating an integrated strategy against terrorism will also be discussed in the huddle of top civil and military leaders.

All service chiefs, security officials, foreign minister, interior minister, defence minister, finance minister and information minister will attend the NSC meeting, which will be chaired by PM Shehbaz.

Also read: Top military brass vows to fight terror amid TTP resurgence

A day earlier, the country’s top military commanders vowed to “fight against terrorists without any distinction” as the scourge of terrorism has reared its ugly head again with a fresh wave of attacks in the country.

The reiteration of the resolve was made in a huddle of the corps commanders at the GHQ which was presided over by army chief General Syed Asim Munir.

“A comprehensive review of professional and organisational matters of the army was undertaken. It was resolved to fight against terrorists without any distinction and eliminate this menace as per the aspirations of people of the Pakistan,” the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in the statement.

The military commanders’ huddle also came amid a spike in terrorist attacks across the country claimed mostly by the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) which unilaterally scrapped a ceasefire in November effectively ending a start-stop negotiation process brokered by the Afghan Taliban.

The TTP, which was comprehensively defeated in a decisive kinetic operation by the military, has found safe havens across the border in Afghanistan from where the group has been directing its terrorist operations in Pakistan.

Islamabad has called these TTP sanctuaries “red-line” and pressed Kabul’s new rulers to take action against them.

Experts believe Pakistan’s patience is running thin due to Kabul’s reluctance to crack down on the TTP bases as Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said during his recent US visit that “all options are on the table” to deal with a resurgent TTP.