Interior minister desires unity to defeat terrorism

• Ahsan calls upon opposition parties to join hands to defeat enemies

Minister for Interior Affairs Ahsan Iqbal on Sunday stressed upon the need to further strengthen the unity among all ranks of the nation to completely efface the menace of terrorism from the country.

Talking to journalists along with Balochistan Chief Minister Sanaullah Zahri and Home Minister Sarfraz Bughti, he urged the need for showing complete solidarity and unity to fight the war against terrorism and called upon the opposition parties to join hands to defeat the enemies of the Pakistan.

Ahsan said that the country had been in a state of war for the last several years. He assured full cooperation of the federal government to tackle this menace, adding the enemy was very clever and had specific designs against Pakistan. Condemning the terrorist attack in Queta, he said the country was successfully stepping ahead with strong agenda to defeat terrorism.

During the last four years, he said Pakistan had achieved significant successes in the war against the terrorism. However, he said few suicide bombers from across the boarder were able to hit the soft targets like civilians. He said aim of such cowardly attacks was to increase the psychological pressure on the nation.

“Our enemy is not familiar that these attacks further increase the courage and determination of the people,” he said. During the last four years, the government had successfully launched Zarb-e-Azb and Ruddul Fasaad security operations which had broken the backbone of the terrorists, he said.

The minister said that eradication of terrorism was a prerequisite for prosperity and development of the country. About Quetta incident, he said it had left 14 people dead which reminded them that the country was in a state of war and its enemies were targeting people to prove their existence.

He said the enemies were on the run and very soon, the government in collaboration with the law enforcement agencies and with the help of the people would be able to eliminate terrorism-related incidents, completely. He said the incident had also reminded that there was a dire need of internal unity to win this war.

The minister observed some political elements from the last few years were trying to destablise the country internally and were trying to divide the nation.  Ahsan said those elements who were trying to weaken the internal unity was the enemy of the motherland. To a query, he said the security situation was much better as compared to 2013.