ADDRESSING the 236th Corps Commanders Conference, Chief of Army Staff General Qama Javed Bajwa said that any attempt of creating instability will be responded firmly. The conference deliberated over the regional and national security situation and reviewed the recent surge in the incidents of terrorism in certain tribal districts of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa and in Baluchistan. The forum paid glowing tributes to civil and military martyrs, who sacrificed their lives for their motherland, and expressed the resolve to defend the geographical and ideological frontiers of the country at all cost. The militancy graph is constantly rising over the past few months. Security forces are conducting intelligence based search operation against the hideouts of terrorists in the tribal districts of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa and Baluchistan, which have common border with Afghanistan. Six days ago, militants of a banned Baloch separatist banned outfit attacked the convoy of security forces at Ormara in Baluchistan, martyring seven soldiers and seven guards of OGDCL. The same day a vehicle of security forces was targeted by blasting an Improvised Explosive Device blast at Razmak in North Waziristan.
There is no iota of doubt that India is funding cross border terrorism by using the soil of Afghanistan and has activated the sleeper cells of banned militant outfits in the country. The surging wave of terrorism necessitates implementation of National Action Plan in letter and spirit. Notwithstanding their beautifully worded occasional statements in support of this plan, the political leadership has shown reluctance to give ownership to it, putting implementation of certain very important points on the backburner. No legislation has been done by the parliament to reform criminal justice system. The counterterrorism watchdog, National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), under which joint intelligence directorate was conceived to be formed, has not been made fully functional. It is no longer a secret that NACTA is not getting a fair deal in budgetary allocations. It is the responsibility of political leadership to have given serious consideration to the judicial commission report on Quetta Civil Hospital which had emphasised for refining the National Action Plan to make it well structured, in addition to formulation of comprehensive and robust national security policy. Neither the previous government moved an inch towards these national priorities, nor the present one due to lack of support from opposition on these issues of national importance.
