Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) head Lt Gen Asim Bajwa and Federal Information Pervez Rashid to hold a joint press conference today at 4:45 pm, according to local media.
The decision to address media has been announced a day after military ordered a crackdown on militant activities in Punjab, in response to the suicide attack on Easter day in Lahore that killed 72 people.
Bajwa had said on Twitter yesterday that a number of suspects had been nabbed in five operations across Punjab after the Lahore carnage but did not officially announce that a widespread operation – similar to those underway in the country’s northwest and Karachi – had been launched in the province.
Number of suspect terrorists and facilitators arrested and huge cache of arms and ammunition recovered-3
— Gen Asim Bajwa (@AsimBajwaISPR) March 28, 2016
Later on Monday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in an address to the nation reiterated Pakistan’s “resolve to fight the menace of terrorism till it is rooted out from our society.”
But Nawaz did not announce the initiation of a ‘security operation’ against militant elements in Punjab, inviting political observers to speculate the government and military are not on the same page.