ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar without specifying any state Saturday said terrorists have formed headquarters and training camps in foreign countries, and efforts are being made to sabotage peace in Pakistan.The statement by the Pakistani interior minister comes a day after Afghan embassy officials were summoned to the Pakistan Army’s General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, where they were handed over a list of 76 terrorists orchestrating terrorist activities in Pakistan from Afghan soil.Pakistan has repeatedly warned Afghan authorities to prevent the use of their soil for terror activities inside its territory.”All suspects behind Lahore and Peshawar blasts have been identified. In most of terrorism incidents, Afghan migrants are used by terrorists as facilitators,” he said, in his informal talk with newsmen here.”Foreign powers and their hostile agencies are involved in wicked efforts to sabotage peace in Pakistan.””The civil-military leadership, in recent high-level meetings, has resolved to crush the new wave of terrorism with iron hands,” the minister said, adding those targeting innocent people will be taken to their end.He stressed the nation needs unity like what was shown after the Army Public School attack in Peshawar.On Friday, Pakistani forces pounded terrorist sanctuaries across the Pak-Afghan border, according to military sources, following a week of deadly terrorist attacks in the country in which over 100 people were killed.Earlier to the strikes, Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa also conveyed his concerns over continued acts of terrorism in Pakistan from Afghanistan to US General John Nicholson, Commander of Resolute Support Mission (RSM) in Afghanistan, during a telephone call.”Most of the incidents in Pakistan are claimed by terrorist organisations with leadership hiding in Afghanistan,” Gen Bajwa told US General John Nicholson.”The COAS said that such terrorist activities and inaction against them are testing our current policy of cross-border restraint,” the ISPR said in a statement.
The Pakistan Army targeted four terrorist camps in Friday’s strikes, besides destroying a training compound of Jamatul Ahrar leaving several militants dead.Commenting on investigations into the attacks, Nisar said the facilitators of the Lahore blast have been put behind bars, while some more facilitators have been arrested from Attock, Kasur and Taxila.He, however, said that no significant development has yet been made in case of Sehwan shrine bombing – this week’s deadliest attack with 88 casualties.The powerful blast took place inside the premises of the shrine as a dhamaal was taking place.The attack in Sehwan came as part of a recent wave of terrorist attacks in the country, and the fifth blast in less than a week targeting innocent people.On February 15, three suicide bombers targeted Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the adjoining tribal areas leaving around seven people dead.One of the incidents occurred in Peshawar where a suicide bomber riding a motorbike hit a vehicle carrying civil judges, while two other suicide bombers blew themselves up at separate locations in Mohmand Agency.Earlier to these, a suicide attack in Lahore on February 13 killed 14 people and wounded over 60 others.
