Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf Chairman Imran Khan has said terrorist attacks like the one on Dera Ismail Khan prison were likely to grow in number unless the federal government devised a national counter-extremism policy.
Speaking to Voice of America, Khan demanded Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif fulfill his commitment to present a national security policy without wasting further time.
“The Taliban influence is increasing because radicalisation is increasing, because extremism is growing and there is no proper policy of dealing with the various forms of terrorism,” he said.
“There needs to be a national level policy and something like homeland security [in the US], where all intelligence agencies pool their intelligence and a coherent policy comes across, with all stakeholders on board – unless that happens, we are going to lose this war,” Khan said while replying to a question.
However, Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal dismissed criticism that Prime Minister Sharif’s administration was not making efforts to confront the militants.
“We are trying to deal with the situation. The prime minister has had consensus with the security agencies. Now we are evolving a consensus with the political parties. Very shortly, the prime minister will have a meeting with all political parties. We want to have a national strategy on security so that we can address this issue with fullest national resolve,” VOA quoted Iqbal as having said.