Minister for Interior and Narcotics Control Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan here on Wednesday called for international unity against terrorism. Speaking at International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) here, the minister said Islam is opposite of terrorism and those who do not know should study religion carefully. Islam teaches tolerance and is a religion of peace and coexistence, he added.
The minister said it was positive aspect at the Washington summit that President Barack Obama made a brave speech categorically stating, "we must not connect Islam and terrorism." "We need to close ranks behind the message of President Obama to strengthen international unity against terrorism." Chaudhry Nisar said the Muslim community stood against the French incident but the French publication responded by publishing the same sacrilegious sketches again further widening fissures.
He said Pakistan has its problems with militancy and extremism since the Afghan war but in 1990s the democratic governments successfully grappled with the after-effects of the Afghan war and Pakistan's return to normalcy and peace existence had almost been achieved. "There were no incidents of terrorism and suicide bombings before 9/11 except occasional cases related to sectarianism but 9/11 brought a sea change," he added. The minister reminded that the 9/11 tragedy had no connection with Pakistan but the entire fallout and backlash fell on Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Afghanistan was ungovernable even at that time but Pakistan was a peaceful and democratic country and then Pakistan was hit by a big storm, he said adding Pakistan lost 50,000 lives in terrorism. He said the task of the present government was to form a coherent security policy in consultation with political parties, cabinet and military. "Within a span of seven months we put in place a mutually agreed document of Internal Security policy with onus on the government and its interior ministry," he said.
The minister said 33 intelligence agencies were working in Pakistan and there was no intelligence sharing and co-ordination among them. "Our main focus was to improve intelligence sharing. We did monumental work to bring intelligence outfits closer so they share information. There is a lot of work that needs to be done for institutional building," according to him.
Nisar said a lot of intelligence was shared with provinces before major terrorist attacks in Pakistan and "now we have integrated security mechanism and intelligence agencies work under the interior ministry so that we can go forward in the war of terrorism." He said, "We are moving forward with full political consensus on the National Action Plan countering terrorism and hate speech and embarking on madressah reforms." "Now weeks go before a terror incident takes place," he said.
The minister said over the last 14 years, incidents similar to attack on the Army Public School Peshawar had taken place and in one of the attacks 125 women and children were killed in Meena Bazaar of Peshawar. Chaudhry Nisar said Pakistan had many 9/11s and in APS attack the terrorists wanted to kill over 1000 pupils in the school. "These terrorists do not subscribe to any religion whereas Islam has clear guidelines and it forbids killing of women, children and unarmed men even in a state of war. These monsters are a threat to Islam and to the whole world," he said.
He said more than 99.9 percent killed in terrorist attacks in Pakistan were Muslims while 99.5 percent of thousands of thousands persons killed in terrorist attacks in North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia in last 15 years were Muslims so it should not be called Islamic terrorism. The minister said, "Muslims are the biggest targets of terrorism but we are castigated by certain vested interests in the West." Whenever there is an incident anywhere in the world, the Muslim community shows its unanimous support but this does not happen when Muslims are attacked, he added.