ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s National Security Adviser (NSA) Dr. Moeed Yusuf on Thursday said the government was very clear that the state’s “monopoly over violence” could never be challenged, the Pakistani state-run APP news agency reported.
The statement by the Pakistani NSA comes a week after the lynching of a Sri Lankan national in the country’s Punjab province over blasphemy allegation.
Priyantha Kumara worked as a manager at a garment factory in the northeastern Sialkot city where he was attacked and killed by a Muslim mob that publicly burned his body over what police said were accusations of desecrating religious posters.
The Pakistani NSA said the country needed a concerted “whole-of-nation approach” to end intolerance from the society and stigmatize violence.
“The prime minister and the government are very clear the state monopoly could never be challenged over violence,” Yusuf was quoted as saying at a session organized by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in Islamabad.
“It is the society’s responsibility to make taking law into one’s hands a taboo so that no individual could dare do that in the future.”
He said incidents like Sialkot lynching were referred to as acts of extremism, whereas it was intolerance that could be in any form and as a society the nation had to seriously work out its eradication.
The NSA said there was no risk of the resurgence of terrorism in the country as authorities and security forces had undertaken a massive capacity buildup that had ensured defense of the country against all threats.
On the prevailing situation in Afghanistan, he warned the international community about a looming humanitarian disaster as 4 million Afghans were at the brink of catastrophe, with US sanctions hampering humanitarian assistance.
Yusuf said banking restrictions had barred international agencies like the United Nations and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from using bank accounts for humanitarian assistance in the war-torn country.
“If they cannot operate then who else could help Afghans facing merciless cold weather during ongoing winters without anything,” he asked. “There is liquidity crisis in Afghanistan as all banking channels are blocked.”
He noted that Pakistan had pledged $30 million and lowered all regulations to assist humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan and the country was making all out efforts in its humble capacity.
“However, the countries like the US, Russia, China and others have pledged assistance to Afghanistan, but due to the prevailing sanctions no one could support them,” the NSA regretted.
He said questioning Pakistan’s preparedness to cope with the refugee crisis was unethical, when it was already looking after 4 million Afghan refugees.