Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Maj-Gen Asif Ghafoor on Tuesday said that the decision to put Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) Chief Hafiz Saeed under house arrest “is a policy decision”.
When questioned about the move during a media briefing, the ISPR DG said, “This is a policy decision that the state took in national interest. Lots of institutions will have to do their jobs.”
Ghafoor denied that any foreign pressure was behind the arrest of the JuD chief. Answering another question about the possibility of the military’s involvement in recent disappearances of five social media activists, the DG denied the idea that the army had a hand in the abductions.
Speaking about the ongoing situation with India, Ghafoor said, “We don’t want war with anyone. War is not a solution to anything.”
“We want the Kashmir issue to be resolve via United Nations resolutions and dialogue, but this desire for peace should not be misconstrued as a weakness.”
“There have been 945 ceasefire violations across the Line of Control and the Working Boundary over the past three years,” he said.
“In the last four months alone, there have been 314 violations, due to which 46 Pakistan citizens and 40 Indian soldiers have been killed,” Ghafoor said.
When asked how the army was aware of Indian casualties, he said that although India doesn’t often reveal their army’s casualties, “the communication intercepts we receive tell us how many casualties took place on their side.”
The DG said Pakistan has come a long way since 2008-09. “Peace doesn’t come overnight,” he noted. “We have sacrificed the blood of 70,000 in war against terrorism.”
“All terrorist hideouts in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas have been eliminated. Terrorists were either killed, or they fled towards the Afghan border, where the absence of the military allowed them to hideout,” Ghafoor said.
There have been a total of 26,000 IBOs [intelligence-based operations] and combing operations in Pakistan, he said. Of these, 3,000 took place in Balochistan in 2016, and 9,000 took place in Karachi. Terrorism, extortion and target killing dropped 90pc in Karachi over the last two years due to the Rangers operation, he said.
The army will help the civil establishment conduct the census starting March 15. “The army chief has granted permission for the support plan. 200,000 soldiers will take part in the census. We will continue our regular operational responsibilities alongside the census,” he said.