De-radicalisation centres: ‘Over 100 ex-militants rehabilitated’

Defence attachés from six European embassies visited rehabilitation and deradicalisation centres in Malakand and FATA run under the Devolution Trust for Community Empowerment (DTCE) said a press release. The defence attachés included Lt-Col Zsolt Muller from Hungary, Col Anders Walden from Sweden, Lt-Col Markus Maeder from Switzerland, Lt-Col Walter Buysse from Belgium, Commander Carsten Klenke from Germany, and Frans van Veenendaal from the Netherlands and Saadat Ali, the senior programme officer at the Dutch embassy. Naway Sahar, a de-radicalisation centre in Bajaur, is being run under the North Frontier Corps commander for the rehabilitation and reintegration of captured militants. North Commander Brig Haider told the visitors via video conference that over 100 former militants have been rehabilitated through counselling, skill development and livelihood projects during the last year. DTCE Board of Directors Chairman Daniyal Aziz, who is also an MNA, briefed the delegates about the background of the Malakand uprising, which led to the militancy.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 14^th, 2013.