Policemen’s killers will be hunted down, vows Bashir Bilour

Says anti-militant operations can be mounted anywhere.

PESHAWAR:

Senior provincial minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour on Tuesday warned that the government could launch an operation anywhere, including suburban areas of Peshawar or Waziristan, in order to secure durable peace in the tribal areas and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Speaking to the media after an oath-taking ceremony of the city district and town office bearers at Pardah Bagh on Tuesday, Bilour said that the provincial government could not longer remain silent on the killing of senior police officials at the hands of militants.

“S P Kalam Khan was killed in a suicide attack and SP Rural Khurshid Khan was killed by militants in attack on a police check post in Mattani on Sunday night,” he added. According to him, a strategy is being devised to counter militancy in order to avert collateral damage.

“The aim is to avoid civilian losses and to target militants,” he said.

He reiterated the government’s resolve of fighting for the greater cause of purging militants once and for all, adding that they would continue the war against terror for a hundred years if necessary.

He urged the federal government to take solid steps to stop militants from infiltrating the settled parts of Peshawar.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2012.