Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has said that the centre of terrorist gang is in Afghanistan and this evil network carries out terrorist activates in Pakistan while sitting across the border, according to the investigation of the Lahore deadly attacks on February 13.
The network responsible for terror incident at the Faisal Chowk in Lahore has been identified and other terrorists have also been arrested besides arrest of the facilitator of suicide bomber involved in the incident, he said while addressing an extra ordinary press conference at his Model Town residence.
The chief minister said that this network was also responsible for terrorism in Lahore. Besides planning of the Lahore terrorist incident, this network also made its preparation in Afghanistan and suicide bomber also belonged to Afghanistan while his facilitator was from Bajour agency.
He said that base of terrorist groups in Afghanistan was a serious issue and he requests prime minister to convene a joint meeting of the four provinces for this purpose and to formulate concrete action plan to address this issue. About extension of the military courts, the chief minister said that the point regarding this was quite clear and the government supports their extension as they have undoubtedly yielded positive results.
During the press conference, video of confession statement of the facilitator of suicide bomber was also played in which he confessed that he belongs to banned outfit Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and got training in Afghanistan. Answering another question, he said that the Pakistan Army, Rangers, police and other security agencies were the asset and they would seek their help when needed.
“We need to stand strong to overthrow terrorists rather than political impeachment,” he said. Commenting on the recent wave of terrorism, he said that even the developed countries like Turkey and some European nations as have better mechanism than ours have faced such brutal incidents.
He said that surely these incidents have created restlessness in Pakistan but “we need to understand the fact that there are challenges in the lives of nations which they have to compete.” About Afghan refugees, he said, “Afghans are our brothers and we are hosting them from more than 30 years and providing them with every needful by cutting short our own necessities nevertheless they are requested to identify black sheep among them who are trying to malign our relations.”