Days after Afghan chief executive Abdullah Abdullah claimed the presence of terrorist sanctuaries and support networks in Pakistan, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif said on Thursday the country was against proxies and would not allow them to operate from its soil.
According to DG ISPR Lt Gen Asim Bajwa, the army chief while speaking to representatives of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and House of Commons in London said Pakistan was fighting various terrorist groups and no new entities would be allowed to emerge.
Gen Sharif said funding of all terrorist organisations had to be checked for long-term success, adding that terrorism was a universal issue, which required a global response.
“Want to finish terrorists and their nurseries,” said the ISPR statement. “Expect international community to play its part for regional peace.”
The ongoing Operation Zarb-e-Azb’s had a discernible effect to pursue sleeper cells of terrorists across the country, added the COAS.
Terming the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor a game-changer, the army chief hoped it will bring prosperity in the area.
“Will do everything to make it (the project) success, whole region (is) to benefit (from the project).”
TIES WITH INDIA:
Speaking at a reception held for him at Pakistan High Commission in London, Gen Sharif says that Pakistan wanted better relations with India but no compromise would be made on the nation’s dignity and sovereignty.
The army chief stated that more than 10,000 intelligence operations were conducted in the country in which terrorists and their accomplices were targeted.
On the law and order situation, Sharif pointed out that in the past, a sense of hopelessness prevailed across the country, but ‘we restored peace in all parts of the country including Karachi’. The Army Chief said there is a marked decline in the number of terrorist acts in the country, as earlier, around 250 such incidents occurred every month.
He said the country had made significant achievements towards restoring stability.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, Lord Nazir, MP Khalid Mehmood, Labour Party MP Gerald Kaufman and many other parliamentarians attended the reception given in honour of the Army Chief.
