COAS Asim Munir, Saudi defence minister discuss military cooperation

Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir on Thursday met Saudi Arabia's Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman and discussed the ways of strengthening cooperation between the two countries.

According to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the army chief arrived in the Kingdom in the early hours of Thursday where he was received by Prince Khalid. At the outset of the meeting, the Saudi defence minister congratulated Gen Munir on his appointment as the army chief.

The SPA said that the two leaders, during the meeting, emphasised the strength and durability of bilateral relations between the two fraternal countries. They discussed military and defence cooperation, and ways to support and enhance them, along with important regional and international issues of common interest.

Meanwhile, in a tweet today, Prince Salman said he was pleased to meet Pakistan's army chief. "We emphasized the strategic partnership between our brotherly countries, reviewed the bilateral military and defence relations, and discussed ways of strengthening our cooperation," he added.

Earlier, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said Gen Munir would be visiting Saudi Arabia and UAE from Jan 4 to Jan 10.

"The COAS will be meeting the senior leadership of both brotherly countries to discuss matters of mutual interest, military-to-military cooperation and bilateral relations focusing on security-related subjects," the military's media wing stated. It is pertinent to mention that this is Gen Munir's first official visit abroad after his appointment.

Investigators in the terrorism case in Islamabad have identified the suicide bomber and are searching for two suspects who facilitated him in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Rawalpindi to reach the capital and detonate an explosive device on December 23.

Sources close to the investigators told Dawn that there were two facilitators of the suicide bomber: one brought him to Islamabad on December 23 and the other, who was present in Rawalpindi, handed him the suicide jacket.

The investigation showed that the suicide bomber had traveled to Mardan from Karak, stayed there overnight along with one of the facilitators and then moved to Swabi where they took a vehicle to reach the Pirwadhai bus terminal in Rawalpindi.

So far, it is yet to be established if they had traveled with a ready-to-detonate suicide jacket, because it is very risky and dangerous.

It is believed that there was another facilitator who was present in Rawalpindi, in the close vicinity of the bus terminal, who brought the jacket to the bomber, the sources said, adding the bomber also made a call after reaching Pirwadhi and talked to someone.

It is suspected that the man to whom the bomber had talked was the one who had arranged the suicide jacket, the sources said.

Earlier, the investigators had found some remains of the bomber from the crime scene, including his four fingers. Forensic experts succeeded in cleaning the little finger and getting fingerprints from it which resulted in his identification, the sources said.