Pakistan won war on terror, world lost: PM
islamabad — Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Thursday said the Pakistani nation was united and committed against terrorism and extremism and had played its part in bringing peace to the country and the region.
Addressing the concluding session of the three-day Islamabad International Counter Terrorism Forum, the prime minister urged the international community to play its role in addressing the causes behind extremism and terrorism.
“We have fought world’s war against terrorism,” and now it was for the world to do more. Abbasi said he was happy and proud to note that Pakistan had made success in an area where the rest of the world failed. He said no country in the world had committed over 200,000 troops to eradicate the threat and had conducted numerous civil and military operations across the country to wipe out all sanctuaries of terrorists. He said, “We do not accept the narrative that there are any sanctuaries in Pakistan that are [bringing] any instability to Afghanistan. That is not true. In fact today, unfortunately, it’s reverse. The people sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan are based in Afghanistan,” Prime Minister Abbasi said.
He said it was the reality that everyone needed to accept and counter it. He said Pakistan in a bid to protect itself was fencing its border with Afghanistan.
He mentioned the recent bombing at a seminary in Kunduz in which dozens of children were killed and said “this is what breeds radicalism and extremism.” The prime minister also urged the world to take note of the indigenous freedom movement in Kashmir and said the issue could only be resolved through implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions. He referred the state brutality and gross human rights violations by the Indian forces which did not differentiate between women, children, elderly and the youth. He pointed to the recent 17 deaths of youth in cold blood and said such acts breed extremism and terrorism. The prime minister called for addressing the causes leading to acts of extremism and terrorism and said there could be no lasting peace unless such simmering issues were not resolved.