LAHORE - Former Punjab Governor and President Jazba Foundation, Lt Gen (R) Khalid Maqbool on Thursday said that terrorists could be faced only through courage and bravery and not merely lamenting the bloodshed of innocent children.
Addressing a seminar held under the aegis of Information & Culture Department Punjab on the on the topic of “Terrorism and Our National Resolve” here, the former governor said that it was a matter of satisfaction that Pakistani nation had now started to move in the right direction.
“Now, the Ulema are also ready to go to any extent for the elimination of terrorism and this is a positive change”, he observed.
Maqbool also stressed the need for capacity building of law enforcement agencies, saying that the war against terrorism had reached streets and muhallahs. He said that law enforcement agencies lacked the required training and equipment to cope with the menace of terrorism.
Khalid Maqbool observed that war against terrorism should not be considered as a war between Islam and liberalism as some terrorists were using the name of Islam only for the achievement of their selfish interests. “Islam is a religion of peace and harmony and lays stress on the welfare of all segments of the society especially poor and the weaker segments”, he remarked.
He said that Islam is not a weak religion otherwise it would not have been spreading so fast the world over.
Senior PPP leader Navid Ch in his speech lamented that had the issue of terrorism been addressed on priority in the very beginning, the nation would not have faced the tragic Peshawar incident today. He added that Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto had declared the war on terrorism as ‘our war’ and the later events proved what she had foreseen years ago.   
Chairman Board of Governors Lahore Arts Council Atta-ul-Haq Qasmi, Member National Assembly Shafqat Mehmood, former Education Minister Mian Imran Masood, Chairman Pakistan Ulema Council Hafiz Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, Mohtamim Jamia Naeemia Lahore Dr. Raghib Hussain Naeemi, prominent intellectuals Amjad Islam Amjad, Dr. Arifa Syeda, Lt. Gen. (R) Ghulam Mustafa, Mohtarma Perveen Atif, defense analyst Brigd. (R) Nadir Mir, cartoonist Javed Iqbal, anchorperson Sohail Warraich, singer Shaukat Ali, film director Syed Noor and Director PILAC Dr. Sughra Sadaf also spoke on the occasion.
Parliamentary Secretary for Information Rana Arshad assured the participants that government will take to task all those terrorists who martyred 70 thousand innocent Pakistanis. Every terrorist will meet his logical end, he added.