ISLAMABAD  - Though a special meeting of the federal cabinet has given a tentative approval to the National Security Policy, another special cabinet meeting, on the request of the Interior Ministry, would be summoned again for a longer session to discuss the policy in detail.
An official of the Interior Ministry said that a meeting of the cabinet would be summoned again, a few days later, to further deliberate upon key components of the Internal Security Policy keeping in view the present volatile security situation of the country.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan left for Bannu during the Cabinet meeting where 20 soldiers were killed and 30 others injured when an explosive-laden vehicle of a Frontier Corps convoy exploded inside the garrison area on Sunday.
According to a handout issued by the ministry, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has said that every drop of blood of the personnel of their security forces was priceless and the government would take all steps necessary to ensure safety and security of each person in uniform. He also said the civil and military leadership of the country was on one page in meeting the challenge of militancy and violence.
He said this during his visit to Bannu where he was given a briefing at the Brigade Headquarters. Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Engineer Shaukatullah, Inspector General Frontier Corps (IGFC) Major General Ghayur Mahmood and GOC 7 Div, Major General Ali Abbas were also present on the occasion.
Addressing the participants of the briefing, the minister said the pain of yesterday’s tragic incident was felt not just in Bannu or within the army but in all spheres of the government and in every nook and cranny of the country. “I am here to express deepest sympathies of Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif as well as the entire government and the people of Pakistan,” he said. He offered condolences on behalf of the prime minister and the Cabinet to the army leadership, and the families of those who lost their loved ones. Chaudhry Nisar said this war was not a normal war as they were fighting an unseen and hidden enemy.
He said their enemy operated from the shadows and not only used to take refuge behind the sacred name of Islam but also misused and distorted it.  The minister said the level of preparedness of their law enforcement agencies should be raised a notch higher and they must be two steps ahead of the militants.
He said that shedding of innocent blood was not allowed in any religion and in Islam it is a cardinal and unforgivable sin to shed the blood of somebody who has done you no harm. How can you blame the Pakistani army for the drone attacks? They have been let loose by a foreign power. To say that this attack is a revenge of the drone attack on Wali ur Rahman and Hakimullah Mehsud is ridiculous, he said.
Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said Wali ur Rahman, during the later part of his life was openly espousing the cause of dialogue with the Pakistan government and the same applied to Hakimullah Mehsud.
“Let there be no doubt that the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will talk to every group or individual who believes in dialogue and peace in order to bring peace and harmony in Pakistan. But let there also be no doubt that we will fight those with all our energy and capacity who do not believe in peace and want to create disharmony, cause insanity and unleash bloodshed in Pakistan,” he said. The minister said they would talk to those people wholeheartedly who wanted to enter into a dialogue with the government according to the message of Islam and for bringing peace to the region, but would vociferously fight those who resort to violence on the directions of external forces.
He said let us all keep politics out of it. Politics and personal and vested interests aside for a moment; let us all unite in the interest of peace and Pakistan.
Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said the government has given top priority to the fight against militancy and after five and a half months of difficult but necessary process the National Internal Security Policy has been presented before the Cabinet.
Earlier in his briefing, Commander Bannu Div, Brig Imran Munawwar informed the minister that Bannu Cantonment served as a logistics base for North Waziristan, DI Khan and Lukky Marwat. He briefed Governor KP and the Interior Minister about the incident, its background and the inquiry carried out so far to identify the people behind this heinous episode. Later, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan visited CMH Bannu to see the injured persons and asked the doctors about their well-being.