Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Friday said recent attacks in Balochistan were fully planned by multiple organisations to sabotage the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) being held in Pakistan.
Addressing the Senate session on Friday, Naqvi said the government was well aware of the perpetrators behind the attacks.
Pakistan is set to host the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting from October 15-16 under its rotating chairmanship.
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The minister said many elements were against the SCO conference being held in Pakistan. He underscored that such incidents were an organised conspiracy against the conference.
According to the interior minister, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif took all the relevant stakeholders in confidence for the establishment of lasting peace in Balochistan and held detailed consultations with the political parties.
PM Shehbaz visited Quetta on Thursday on a one-day trip to assess Balochistan’s security situation after multiple terrorist attacks rocked Pakistan’s largest province earlier this week.
The PM was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, federal ministers Ahsan Iqbal, Jam Kamal Khan, and Mohsin Naqvi. During his visit, the prime minister chaired a high-level meeting on overall law and order.
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Naqvi emphasised that those who did not recognise the state and took up arms were terrorists.
He further said there might be differences among those who recognise Pakistan, and the government was trying to resolve the issues and would continue to do so.
The interior minister apprised the Senate session that the prime minister had allocated Rs5 billion for Balochistan’s Counterterrorism Department (CTD) and Rs8 billion for resolving the issues being faced by the people in various divisions of Balochistan.
He stated that PM Shehbaz had announced a policy to meet the shortage of federal officers in Balochistan and almost 40 officers were going to be posted in Balochistan on an immediate basis.
Security forces kill 5 terrorists in Balochistan
Security forces killed five terrorists and injured three others during three intelligence based operations in Kech, Panjgur and Zhob districts of Balochistan, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Friday.
“In backdrop of cowardly terrorist activities, targeting the innocent civilians in Balochistan on 26 August, the security forces are conducting extensive intelligence based operations (IBOs) to hunt down the perpetrators of these heinous acts,” the ISPR said.
The army’s media wing further said that sanitization operations will continue until all perpetrators, facilitators and abetters of these atrocious acts are brought to justice.
The operations were carried out after at least 73 people were killed in Balochistan when terrorists attacked police stations, railway lines and highways on Sunday.
Many countries including the United States, China, and Turkey condemned the terrorist attacks in Balochistan and vowed complete support to Pakistan in fight against terrorism.