Inter Services Public Relations
(ISPR) Director General Major General Asif Ghafoor Monday said
the operation Radd ul Fasaad (RUF) was continuing successfully and
the Pakistan Army with the support of entire nation was determined
to end disorder from the country.
Addressing a press conference here, he said, “The operation
RUF will be taken to its logical conclusion.”
He said all the earlier operations, which were of kinetic
in nature, were successful with the support of the people and state institutions, while the aim of RUF was to consolidate their gains.
Quoting Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, he
said the RUF was not an operation of army alone, but other
institutions and all Pakistani citizens were part of it.
“The RUF is an operation in which every Pakistani is a soldier.
We have to clear Pakistan of ‘fasaad and fasadis’ together while
staying united.”
Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor said people could inform about any dubious
activity on the helplines provided by the army, and Pakistan Rangers
Punjab and Sindh, besides Frontier Corps in Balochistan and Frontier
Constabulary (FC) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“The army is a state institution and we will continue to give
all kinds of sacrifices for the security of Pakistan. We have been
mandated to safeguard the country at every cost.”
He expressed determination to eradicate terrorism as well as
“fasadis” and their abettors, handlers and facilitators wherever
they were found.
“We have to delink all the ‘fasadis’ from the elements sitting
across the border.”
He recalled that during the operation Zarb-e-Azb, militants
were dislodged from North Waziristan and the area was cleared except
small pockets in Rajgal and Shawal.
During the operation, air force also targetted the militant
hideouts, he added.
The army through intelligence based operations (IOBs), he said,
had dislodged the facilitators and abettors of militants and broken
their connection with their leadership sitting across the border.
He said writ of the state was being restored and no power
could fight the state.
“Our state has made a lot of progress, but more work needs to
be done.”
He said the Pakistan Army had been fighting militancy since
2008, it had cleared all the areas physically by launching kinetic
offensive, and now was the time to consolidate the gains and ensure
an enduring peace through the RUF which was both kinetic and
non-kinetic in nature.
He said Pakistan was 70 years old and it took time to
strengthen its institutions and systems.
He said reforms were being made in four areas, including
judiciary, police, madaris (seminaries) and educational institutions,
and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) through the National
Action Plan.
Other measures to be taken were stabilization of FATA, border
management mechanism and active surveillance on the borders, he
added.
He said the army along with FC would build 338 check posts
by 2019 to strengthen border with Afghanistan, besides fencing
it along Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA.
He said 42 forts had already been built, while 63 more were
being built along the Pak-Afghan border.
The ISPR DG said the Pak-Afghan border was 2611 kilometre
long and in the first phase, 744 km border along Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
would be fenced and then fencing would be done along the border with
Balochistan.
He said work was being carried out to erect fence along 100
kilometer border in Mohmand Agency on priority basis.
He told a questioner, “The border management mechanism is the
most important issue and Pakistan as a sovereign country can do what
it wants on its territory.”
He said the Afghan leadership also realized that border fencing
would also help their country. Talks between the leadership of two
countries would further improve the situation, he added.
17 April 2017
Editor