Nation's Support Vital To Win War Against Terrorism: DGISPR

Sumaira FH Published February 22, 2021 | 05:10 PM

RAWALPINDI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Feb, 2021 ) :Director General Inter Services Public Relations (DG ISPR) Major General Babar Iftikhar Monday said nation's support to the country's armed forces was imperative to win the war against terrorism.

The ISRPR DG on completing four years of Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad which was launched back in February 22, 2017 to dismantle and exterminate terrorist sleeper cells said the Operation had not been area specific rather was launched across the country with a broader domain and implications.

Major General Babar said the timing of the Operation was significant as terrorists had faced a crushing defeat in the tribal areas and were resorted to permeate into all walks of life from religion to business to create chaos and anarchy in the country through hostile activities.

"The Operation has been initiated with a strategy based on four pillars namely clear, hold, build and transfer." He added that during 2017 under clear and hold major areas were cleansed from the terrorists in the tribal districts and state's writ was established.

The Operation had two core domains of Counter Terrorism Domain and Counter Violence Domain. Under the former, use of power was only the state's prerogative and complete safety of western zone was necessary to ensure peace and stability in the region, he said.

The ISPR DG said in Counter Violence Domain it was worth mentioning that an ideology could only be countered through superior argument and ideology and under this domain mainstreaming of tribal areas to the national setup, police and madrassa reforms were assisted through the government's interventions.

He said in the second part of the Operation numerous kinetic operations were being carried out that proved to be the correct step to maintain peace.

In this regard, he said around 375,000 counter terrorism or intelligence based operations (IBOs) were conducted with the assistance of Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), Intelligence Bureau (IB), Military Intelligence (MI), Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and Police departments who had played a pivotal role in its successful execution.