Director General (DG) Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Asif Ghafoor said that the “nature and character” of extremism has changed.
He was addressing a seminar on ‘Role of Youth in Rejecting Extremism’ that is underway in Rawalpindi today. Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa is also expected to deliver key note address at the event which is being attended by academia, vice chancellors of universities, students, and mohtamim of madaris; national and international media and representatives of the civil society.
“It is our collective duty as ‘state’ and individual duty in our respective domain to shield our youth against this threat,” he said, adding that the process protecting the youth would involve the “identification of threat and response measures.”
DG ISPR also said that the operation Raddul Fasad is aimed at consolidating gains of all military operations and to bring about an enduring peace and stability. One of its strands is to eliminate extremism from our society. He said the requirement becomes more pronounced when we see that the nature and character of the conflict has also changed with ideology of ISIS that focuses on targeting minds of our youth.
Paying tribute to the soldiers who had sacrificed their lives in the fight against terrorism, he said, that of all the sacrifices made by uniformed Pakistanis 90 percent contributions are by our youth.