Chief of Pak army Gen Syed Asim Munir briefed members of the National Assembly in an in-camera session about the country’s anti-terrorism strategy. He acknowledged that the previous policy of engaging with terrorists had allowed them to regroup in tribal areas, and emphasized the need to revisit the strategy. He outlined a three-pronged plan of deterrence, dialogue, and development to root out terrorism, and shared updates about the army’s anti-terror operations in various parts of the country.
According to Dawn, Gen Munir suggested including all stakeholders in this strategy, such as security forces, legal fraternity, civil society, politicians, social workers, bureaucracy, diplomats, and media. He also urged politicians to unite for the sake of Pakistan, setting aside their differences. During the Q&A session, tough questions were raised by lawmakers, particularly from tribal districts, about the resurgence of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the previous government’s strategy of engaging them through dialogue.
The army chief assured the lawmakers of zero tolerance for facilitators of terrorist groups and emphasized the sacrifices made by security forces in clearing “no-go areas” in Pakistan. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif praised the efforts of the armed forces but also criticized the previous government for wasting anti-terror efforts, leading to the resurgence of terrorism in the country. Some lawmakers, including Ali Wazir from South Waziristan, expressed concerns about the resettlement of militants in Pakistan without proper trial and conviction of those who facilitated them and claimed that even the GHQ (General Headquarters) was not taken into confidence about the agreements reached with militants in Afghanistan.
It appears that Chief of Army Staff Gen Syed Asim Munir acknowledged during an in-camera briefing to members of the National Assembly that a strategy to engage with terrorists had allowed them to regroup in tribal areas. This strategy was apparently devised and followed by the military and political leadership under the PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) regime, following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021. This acknowledgment led to a revisit of the anti-terrorism strategy, with a new three-pronged plan of deterrence, dialogue, and development to root out terrorism already underway.
During the briefing, Gen Munir also shared updates about the country’s current security issues and the army’s anti-terror operations in various parts of Pakistan, including Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Gilgit-Baltistan, and others. The director general of Inter-Services Intelligence, Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum, also briefed lawmakers about the connivance of hostile intelligence agencies with terrorist groups.
It is mentioned that former prime minister and PTI chief Imran Khan has defended his policy of resettling militants returning from Afghanistan in the past, but there seems to be a shift in policy now with the revisit of the anti-terrorism strategy. Lawmakers expressed serious concerns over the resurgence of terrorist groups, leading to the reassessment of the approach to counter-terrorism in Pakistan.