ISLAMABAD: The entire nation is united in its resolve to eliminate “terrorism” from the country, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Monday after militants killed two security personnel in an attack in northwestern Pakistan.
A police officer named Ejaz and Frontier Constabulary (FC) official Shahzad were killed on Sunday after militants attacked a police checkpost in Khyber district. Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said in a statement that the slain security personnel thwarted the militants’ attack.
In a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Sharif praised the two officials for laying down their lives for Pakistan, recognizing the country’s armed forces, police and law enforcers’ sacrifices for the nation.
“The Pakistani nation is proud of its martyrs and their families,” Sharif was quoted as saying in a statement. “The entire nation is united to eliminate the scourge of terrorism.”
Pakistan’s top national security forum last month announced it was launching a new military operation, “Operation Azm-e-Istehkam” or “Resolve for Stability,” to root out militants in the country. Sharif clarified that the government was not considering a large-scale military operation that would displace people within the country, adding that Azm-e-Istehkam would mobilize military operations that have already been launched against militants.
The decision was criticized by two main parties in Pakistan’s militancy-wracked northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamiat Ulama-e-Pakistan Fazl (JUI-F), who accused the government of not taking them into confidence about the military operation.
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif assured the opposition that the operation would be enforced after it is discussed and debated in parliament. He said the government would address all concerns regarding the military operation by the JUI-F and the PTI and build a national consensus over it.
Thousands of people in Pakistan’s tribal areas were displaced during the late 2000s when the Pakistan Army launched operations to clear the area from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) or Pakistani Taliban militants.
The TTP, who seek to enforce their own brand of strict Islamic law, have carried out some of the deadliest attacks against Pakistani civilians and security forces since 2007.
Pakistan, which has suffered a surge in militant attacks since a fragile truce between the government and the TTP broke down in November 2022, has blamed the Afghan government for not doing enough to rein in TTP militants whom it accuses of using Afghan soil to launch attacks in Pakistan.
Kabul denies this. Since last November, the Pakistan government has also launched a deportation drive under which over 600,000 Afghan nationals have been expelled from Pakistan.