-Army Chief briefs Premier on Law and Order situation
-NCS meeting has been summoned for today to discuss deteriorating peace in country
-Three soldiers martyred, two terrorists killed in Kurram district gunfight
By Our Defence
Correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Syed Asim Munir called on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at the PM Office on Thursday and discussed prevailing law and order situation amid spike in terrorist incidents in the country.
According to details, Gen. Asim briefed the Premier on the security situation of the country during the meeting. National Security Committee (NSC) meeting, scheduled to be held today (Friday), also came under discussion during the huddle.
The high-powered NSC meeting will take a comprehensive review of the strategy in the wake of the ongoing surge in terrorist attacks. Military officials will brief the NSC meeting participants on the rise in terrorism incidents, situation along Pak-Afghan border and implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP).
Apart from this, issues related to formulating an integrated strategy against terrorism will also be discussed in the huddle of top civil and military leaders.
All Service Chiefs, security officials, foreign minister, interior minister, defence minister, finance minister and information minister will attend the NSC meeting, which will be chaired by PM Shehbaz.
Besides, three Pakistan Army soldiers were martyred in the Arawali area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kurram district on Thursday during a gunfight with terrorists, according to a press release from the military’s media wing. The statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) identified the martyrs as 42-year-old Subedar Shuja Muhammad from Khairpur, 32-year-old Naik Muhammad Ramzan from Khuzdar, and 30-year-old Sepoy Abdul Rehman from Sukkur.
“On 29 December 22, an exchange of fire took place between terrorists and security forces in the general area of Arawali, Kurram District. Own troops fought bravely and effectively engaged the terrorists’ location,” the ISPR said.
“During an intense exchange of fire, two terrorists were killed. Weapons and ammunition were also recovered from the killed terrorists,” it said, adding that the killed terrorists remained actively involved in terror activities against security forces.
The statement added that sanitisation of the area was being carried out to eliminate any terrorists found in the area.
“Pakistan Army is determined to eliminate the menace of terrorism and such sacrifices of our brave soldiers further strengthen our resolve,” the military’s media wing concluded.
Earlier this week, five Pakistan Army personnel were martyred in a blast from an improvised explosive device (IED) during a clearance operation in Balochistan’s Kahan area.
The responsibility for the attack was claimed by the banned militant Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) group, the ISPR had said.
Pakistan is seeing an uptick in terrorist attacks across the country after the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan ended its months-long ceasefire with the government last month.
Recent weeks and months have seen a resurgence of militancy in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the southern belt, and merged districts, with increasing intensity of attacks on law enforcement personnel.
