KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that terrorism and its related activities would come to an end when peace was restored in the entire region on Eastern and Western fronts, otherwise it would have been simmering.
This he said while talking to an American delegation led by American Consul General Robert Silberstein and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Strategic Policy Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes. The other US officers who attended the meeting include Ms. Michelle Crockett, Mr. Grant Vickers, Mr. David Galbraith, Neil Phillips, Chad Mineer, Ms. Sanam Noor and Mr. Umair Mumtaz. Home Secretary Kazi Kabir, additional IG CTD and DIG Abdullah Shaikh.
He said that terrorism was simmering in the region because of Indian atrocities in held Kashmir and against Muslims within its state. “This must be stopped in the larger interest of peace in the entire region,” he said.
Shah added that in Afghanistan its government has a very limited control and writ within the state, therefore conspiracies for terrorist activities were hatched there and then exported to Pakistan. He added the provincial government was fighting against terrorism from last many year and now we have controlled it considerably.
Talking about terrorism financing, the chief minister said that a close coordination between the provincial and federal government agencies has been developed and 19 cases were detected and five of them have been convicted.
He said the provincial government has established a dedicated unit in Home Department which dealt with terrorism financing matters. He added that under Charity Regulation law all the charity and donation matters were being regulated,” he said.
He disclosed that donations or charity to any organization, including NGOs/ NPOs was being monitored through banking system and an eagle eye has been put on their utilization. “We have almost plugged this loophole through effective laws and constant monitoring,” he said.
The chief minister told the visiting delegation that CTD of Sindh police have arrested around 500 terrorists during last three hours, of them a large number of terrorists have been convicted.
The delegation appreciated the efforts of the provincial government and assured technical and other support against terrorism financing activities.
They discussed a systematic mechanism of intelligence work, monitoring and choking the financing system with the chief minister. The chief minister said that a complete ban on hides of sacrificial animals. Under the new arrangement the hides were allowed to those organization, which were certified by concerned deputy commissioners and after that utilization of funds generated through hides were also audited, he said.
