ISLAMABAD - Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif called on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at the PM House here on Tuesday. Both dilated on key issues crucial to peace in the country and the region.
Implementation of the National Action Plan, Operation Zarb-e-Azb and return of temporarily displaced persons came under discussion, a PM Office statement said.
Media reports however said the army chief and the PM discussed strategy to take out Pakistan’s most wanted terrorist Mullah Fazlullah.
The reports quoted sources as saying that the two discussed the arrests of Army Public School attackers in both Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan and were keen on capturing Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Mullah Fazlullah dead or alive.
The attack on the army-run school in which 150 people, including 133 children, were killed was claimed by the TTP.
The reports said recent developments in Afghanistan were also discussed during the meeting. The premier further apprised the army chief about Monday’s telephonic conversation with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
The reports also said both Nawaz Sharif and General Raheel Sharif expressed satisfaction over the initiation of talks between Afghan Taliban and the Afghan government and vowed to further facilitate this process.
Regarding the ongoing operation against militants in North Waziristan and the rehabilitation of temporary displaced persons, the army chief briefed PM Nawaz about the efforts to prepare a model of rehabilitation for displaced persons, the reports added.
Recent violations along the Line of Control (LoC) and the working boundary also came under discussion during the meeting, the media reports added.
“Both the premier and army chief agreed to expedite the work of taking up Indian’s skirmishes on LoC and Working Boundary before the regional and international powers through diplomatic and military sources,” the reports said.
Meanwhile, Ministries of Defence and Interior said on Tuesday that as many as 37 insurgents have been killed in separate military operations over the last 24 hours.
A statement issued by the Ministry of Interior stated that 24 insurgents were killed in separate police operations in Nangarhar, Takhar, Kunduz, Badakhshan, Sar-e-Pul, Balkh, Kandahar, Uruzgan, Maidan Wardak, Paktiya, Herat, Farah and Helmand provinces in the past 24 hours.
The statement added that 40 others insurgents were injured and two others arrested by the security forces.
The statement further stated that 26 different types of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) placed by insurgents, were also defused by the security forces.
Afghan National Army and personnel from the National Directorate of Security (NDS) personnel also took part in these operations, according to the statement.
The law enforcement agencies have arrested 19,272 people on different charges in 19,789 operations conducted across the country, since the launch of the National Action Plan (NAP) aimed at ridding the country of terrorism and extremism from the country.
A report given to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and based on information available from Dec 24, 2014 to Feb 21, stated that the security agencies conducted 11,634 operations in Punjab, 3,003 in Sindh, 3,733 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 57 in Balochistan, 368 in Islamabad, 891 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), 35 in Gilgit-Baltiststan (GB) and 68 in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
The report stated that under the National Action Plan (NAP), the security agencies arrested included 2,255 from Punjab, 3,552 from Sindh, 9,400 from KP, 3,297 from Balochistan, 615 from Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and seven from Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), 10 from GB and 136 from FATA.
The police also arrested a total of 2,497 people on loud speaker violations including 2,160 in Punjab, six in Sindh, 243 in KP, three in Balochistan and 85 in ICT.
In total, 580 cases have been registered for spreading hate speech and material. These included 455 in Punjab, 11 in Sindh, 63 in KP, four in Balochistan, 46 in AJK and one in GB. The law enforcement agencies also arrested 518 people and sealed a total of 61 shops on these charges.
According to the report submitted to the prime minister, 5,066 Afghan Refugees have been deported including 3,850 from KP, 686 from Balochistan, one from Islamabad, two from GB and 527 from FATA, whereas 327,817 have been registered.
The Federal Investigation Agency has registered 23 cases for money transfer through Hawala Hundi, arrested 26 people and recovered Rs 75.8 million.
Three cases have also been registered on suspicious transactions while the agency also registered five money laundering cases and arrested as many people on the charges. In total, 253 actionable calls were received on anti-terror helpline 1717 including 167 in Punjab, 22 in Sindh, 33 in KP, eight in Balochistan and 23 in ICT. According to the report around 1250 intelligence-based operations were also conducted during this period throughout the country.
The cellular mobile companies, in cooperation with the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) have so far verified total 57.6 million SIMs; including 1,4056,169 of Telenor, 13,077,652 of Mobilink, 8,192,853 of Zong, 6,189,265 of Ufone and 3,950,401 of Warid.