Jamaat-ul-Ahrar using minors in terrorist attacks in Pakistan, Senate told
Balighur Rehman gave an in-camera briefing to Senate regarding the new wave of terrorism.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) - Minister of State for Interior Balighur Rehman gave an in-camera briefing to Senate regarding the new wave of terrorism, and the opposition seemed dissatisfied over it.
Balighur Rehman told that there are threats to some important people and reports of terror attacks in big cities. Government and law enforcement institutions are busy in eradicating the terrorism by all means, he added.
The minister informed about Jamaat-ul-Ahrar’s involvement in these attacks and said this organization operates from Afghanistan’s areas Lalpura and Nangarhar.
Members of government as well as opposition demanded strict dialogues with Afghanistan, and asked to raise this matter on international level as Afghanistan is doing nothing against these terrorists despite its commitments.
The minister further told that the terror alerts were issued after arrests of children from ten to twelve years of age. He said that these children were taken into custody in January and they confessed after investigation that they were working for Jamaat-ul-Ahrar.
These children also revealed that there was a plan to target boys’ school at Abdali Chowk, Lahore. A terror alert was issued afterwards which foiled this plan.
Similarly, threat alerts were issued in Peshawar and Quetta after catching some militants.
According to sources, Saleh Shah, Sassui Palijo and Mir Kabeer inquired the minister about presence of Daish in Pakistan but he could not give a satisfactory answer to this question. The minister told that Daish has taken responsibility of Sehwan Sharif blast, investigation is being carried out and facts will be disclosed only after the details come.
The opposition parties expressed dissatisfaction over the in-camera briefing by government and said it is an alarming situation that both federal and provincial governments could not stop the terror attacks despite the alerts. Opposition also raised questions over the performance of military and civil institutions.
Government and opposition members, however, agreed on the fact that the purpose of current wave of terrorism is to harm political stability in the country, and particularly to sabotage China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project. It has been claimed that neighboring countries and international forces are behind these attacks along with Jamaat-ul-Ahrar.
Opposition also said that current incidents are happening because National Action Plan was not implemented in its true essence.
Rehman Malik and Shahi Sayed termed the recent events as failure of government and said there is a lack of coordination between civil and military institutions.
Balighur Rehman responded to this statement and said coordination is present between provincial and federal governments as well as civil and military institutions. He explained that some big terrorist attempts have already been made unsuccessful. Government does not share all the details with media and people to stop spreading a surge of fear among them.
Nehal Hashmi also agreed with Balighur Rehman and said these terrorist attacks are not government’s failure.
