Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif promises to crush terrorism as militant attacks intensify in the country

New Delhi, December 27

With even close ally Saudi Arabia issuing a travel advisory, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reiterated his assurance to eradicate terrorism while speaking from one such epicentre of unrest in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (LP) province.

After the US and the UK warned about a possible terror threat at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Saudi Arabia and Australia also issued security advisories asking their citizens in Pakistan to restrict their movement.

The Australians were more specific, stating that “many terrorist groups hostile to Western interests operate in Pakistan. Don’t travel to Balochistan or Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (except Chitral district). The risk of attack is highest in these locations. Always have an exit plan.’’

At a public meeting in Dera Ismail Khan district in KP, Sharif admitted that terrorism was on the rise but said the state would crush it soon with the help of provincial governments and security forces.

A meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) will be convened soon to chalk out an appropriate strategy, he said while terming the deaths of six security personnel in a Tehrike Taliban Pakistan (TTP) as heart-breaking.

But former PM and opposition leader Imran Khan said the present government had failed to control terrorism with a 52 per cent rise in such incidents which has killed 270 but was “proudly leading the country towards making it one of the world’s top tourism destinations’’. Separately, his party leader Fawad Chaudhry said terrorism was returning to Pakistan with embassies issuing advisories to their employees to avoid five-star hotels in Islamabad, he noted.

Khan was quoting from a report by the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies which noted that “since security affairs in Pakistan are usually shrouded in ambiguities, there is a prevailing confusion about who or what allowed the TTP’s resurgence and relocation in the northwest.’’

“Overall, the inflated figures reflect that militants carried out some major attacks. In short, terrorism has risen both in frequency and intensity,’’ it said while pointing out that since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, cross border movement of militants has increased and TTP and IS-K have stepped up attacks in Pakistan.