SLAMABAD: Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said on Friday that militants must surrender under the law or face action by security forces.
Speaking at a press briefing on counterterrorism and security, the DG ISPR said 2,084 confirmed terrorists had been killed in operations so far this year, while more than 40,000 intelligence-based operations had been conducted across the country.
He said security forces had carried out 31,000 intelligence-based operations in Balochistan and 7,177 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over the past five years.
According to Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif, 819 people have been killed in terrorist attacks this year, including 303 army personnel and 322 civilians. He added that security forces had conducted an average of 194 operations daily, with around 10 terrorists killed each day.
The DG ISPR said there had been 28 suicide attacks during the year, adding that Afghan nationals were involved in incidents in Tank and Karachi.
He rejected what he described as deliberate attempts to portray Balochistan as being in a state of persistent instability and said there was no room for negotiations with terrorists. He stressed that all citizens and institutions must operate within the Constitution and the law.
Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif also said militant groups were increasingly targeting soft targets and infrastructure. He claimed that 178 civilians had been killed, while bridges and roads had been damaged at 24 locations and fires had been set at 60 sites this year.
He maintained that the state would continue taking action against those involved in terrorism and violence, stressing that maintaining peace and security remained a collective responsibility.
