Federal Information Minister Senator Pervaiz Rashid has called for "change of mindset" to deal with the menace of terrorism in the wake of recent terror attack in Charsadda. In his address during a workshop arranged by the Punjab Police on Friday, the minister said, "Hideouts and infrastructure of terrorists' organisations have been destroyed. The war on terror has become an ideological war. Terrorists are using social media to propagate their evil agenda."
He also praised the police, saying, "The police have played an important role in destroying terrorists' infrastructure." He did condemn the Charsadda attack, calling the attackers "a bunch of beasts who even targeted young student while praying".
In another anti-terror development, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah has signalled his government's intention to launch a crackdown against criminal gangs in the southern parts of the province bordering Sindh and Balochistan. On Friday, he said the Elite Force of the Counter-Terrorism Department in the Punjab would lead the crackdown while taking the Sindh and Balochistan police on board. "Criminals take refuge in slums along the Indus River in Sindh and the Punjab and Balochistan's mountains," he said.
The minister then mentioned by name "the Chotoo Group", a notorious group of criminals, on the hit-list. "Army and paramilitary troops will be on standby," he added. Recent attack on Bacha Khan University was reminiscent of that in December 2014 on a school in Peshawar in which more than 150 people, mostly schoolboys, were killed. But damage to life and property this time has been much less, mainly due to swift action by the local police, but also because of the fact that the university had its own team of more than 50 trained security guards on duty who first confronted the attackers.
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