Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said earlier today that terrorism cannot be resolved immediately and that tackling it may take weeks, month or even years.
Addressing a session of the National Assembly, the interior minister said that inevitably there is always a reaction to a military operation, adding that security issues should not be politicised.
“Their targets are soft and easy but we are trying to strengthen our mechanism to foil their nefarious designs,” he said.
Nisar said terrorists wanted to spread fear and panic to divide the nation.
“Intelligence agencies share information with provinces and forces whenever sought by provincial governments. No province is held responsible over terrorism neither is any province criticised over the law and order situation,” he said.
“Fingers should have been pointed at terrorists instead of pointing them at each other,” adding that protests should have been carried out against terrorists instead of the provincial government.
“Deteriorating law and order situation should not be termed a failure of provinces,” he said adding that the entire nation and the political leadership should stand united to weed out the menace of terrorism from the country once and for all.
The interior minister also cited incidents from across the world, including the lone gunman’s siege in the United States, the militant standoff in Germany, the recent Charlie Hebdo ‘attack in the heart of France’ to make his point.
He said that hundreds of terrorists have been arrested in about five hundred intelligence-based operations across the country and added that improved coordination between security agencies and the federal and provincial governments have helped thwart many terrorist attacks.
Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah told the House that the opposition will continue to extend all possible support to the government on the issue of national security.