It is quite commendable to note that Pakistan has eliminated sanctuaries of all terrorist groups from its soil through a well thought out and implemented military campaign. 

This has quite emphatically and forcefully stated by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Major General Asif Ghafoor in an interview with a UAE newspaper in Islamabad the other day. 

He has also categorically said, as reported in the media , that all this has come only after paying a very huge price, besides costing the lives of 75 thousand Pakistanis , there has also been a loss of more than 123 billion dollars to the national exchequer. 

About measures taken by Pakistan to eliminate terrorism from its soil, he stated that the country has fought war against terrorism quite successfully which entered Pakistan through the 2611 kilometer scantily manned Pak-Afghan border, organized terrorist sanctuaries did not exist in Pakistan anymore, for the elimination of low-profile militants operation Raddul Fasaad is also still in operation successfully , some militants take advantage of the 2.7 million Afghan refugees continued presence in the country by integrating themselves into peaceful refugees caravans,there is dire need to repatriate the remaining Afghans to their country, there are over two lakhs Pakistani troops deployed in FATA along Pak-Afghan border,their deployment will continue despite success inside Pakistan as threat continue to reside inside Afghanistan mainly due to lack of Afghan forces capacity , Pakistan has also started to fence the entire Pak-Afghan borderand initiated work on the construction of new forts and posts along the border tocheck and prevent cross border movement of terrorists. 

This matter of fact ground realities based honest talking by a senior army officer should be more than enough to open eyes of those who keep clamouring Pakistan is not doing enough to eliminate terrorist. 

MUHAMMAD MURTAZA ZEESHAN,  

Lahore, March 19.