Talks won’t dilute anti-terror strikes

Dubai: Islamabad will not let terror attacks go unchecked even though peace talks with militants are ongoing, Pakistan Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told Gulf News in an exclusive interview yesterday.

“These airstrikes are in line with the policy we are pursuing, though we are engaged in dialogue with the militants, the other side is continuing its terrorist attacks. We will not let their attacks go unchecked.

‘‘As for now, these are not pre-emptive strikes but rather precision strikes based on intelligence and in response to the militants’ acts of violence. We are conducting these on their headquarters and strongholds when we have intelligence and in response to any attacks they commit,” Nisar Ali Khan said.

The recent air strikes on militant strongholds in the tribal areas are not a precursor to a ground offensive, he added commenting on specualtion rife in the country over an impending ground war.

Commenting on the rumour circulating in the media recently that Pakistan had been supplying arms to Syrian rebels at the behest of Saudi Arabia, the minister said that “this is absolute nonsense. Neither has Saudi Arabia ever mentioned this preposterous idea nor are we thinking about this. This has been generated for the sake of spreading malicious news about Pakistan and our government has denied this.”

He believes that the new Counter-Terrorism Policy will put more teeeth into the fight against militant groups.“The National Counter-Terrorism Policy is Pakistan’s first and foremost policy on counter-terrorism. Finally we will have a policy. We have been facing terrorist attacks for the past 12 years and operating on a day to day basis.”

As Interior Minister, Nisar Ali Khan spearheads the onerous task of formulating a comprehensive policy that entails streamlining different braches of the government and the security and intelligence agencies to work in tandem for the prevention and counter of terror attacks.

In lieu of the precarious situation where militants have not refrained from launching attacks against security officers even while the government went an extra mile to initiate peace talks to give dialogue preference over military operations, the decision by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to respond strongly to any attack by the militants may emerge as the game changer and force the militants to retract from their policy of unleashing attacks on the state apparatus.