IS cannot be a bigger threat than Taliban: Peshawar corps commander

General Hidayatur Rehman says defections are taking place among militants but law enforcers are on alert

PESHAWAR: Corps Commander Peshawar Lieutenant General Hidayatur Rehman on Saturday denied that militant group Islamic State (IS) posed a great threat to Pakistan.

“Is what the Taliban have done over the last 12 years any less than what the Daesh could do?” General Rehman questioned.

The Peshawer corps commander was addressing a joint press conference with Governor Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Sardar Mehtab Abbasi at the Governor House in Peshawar.

“Defections are taking place among militants; however, law enforcement agencies are on alert,” he added.

The corps commander’s statement comes weeks after the Foreign Office said the militant group, which has taken over large swathes of land in Iraq and Syria, posed a threat to the country.

Read: Islamic State poses serious threat to Pakistan: FO

“The government is on alert to the IS threat in the region,” Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry said, while briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs in Islamabad on February 23.

TDPs repatriation

Further, the K-P governor announced that phase I of the repatriation of temporarily displaced persons (TDPs) would start from March 16.

He said, “2,500 families from Sarwakai and Sararogha tehsils of South Waziristan would return to their homes.”

On March 20, over 20,000 families from Akakhel area of Bara tehsil would repatriate to their villages, while on March 31, over 18,000 families from Mir Ali tehsil of South Waziristan would start to return to their homes.

Read: IDPs to start going home to North Waziristan this Sunday: Qadir Baloch

“About 245,000 persons would return to their homes in the first phase,” he said.

Sardar Mehtab said that this process is likely to cost about Rs80 billion earmarked for compensation and household reconstruction.

Mehtab further said that tribesmen would get Rs400,000 compensation for completely destroyed houses and Rs160,000 for partially damaged ones.