Former President Asif Ali Zardari has strongly condemned the attack on Bach Khan University Charsadda resulting in the martyrdom of tens of innocent people and injury to many more as "barbarity that will neither go unpunished nor weaken the resolve of the nation to rot out the extremists and militants from its midst." In a statement today he said that the attack on the university in Charsadda within a year of similar attack on the Army Public School Peshawar raised questions about the implementation of National Action Plan (NAP) and calls for some soul searching.
It is most unfortunate that the NAP developed with consensus after the APS attack last year has not been implemented in letter and spirit. NACTA remains dysfunctional, religious seminaries have not been registered and banned militant organisations continue to operate with impunity under different names, he said.
Zardari also noted the failure of the federal government to immediately send a high level representative to the site and be with the victims and said that it will cause dismay and frustration among the people of the province that have borne the brunt of fight against militancy.
Zardari said that peace and stability will not return to Pakistan until there was peace and stability in Afghanistan and called for revisiting policies that have a direct bearing on peace in our neighbourhood. Asif Zardari also prayed for those who lost their lives and speedy recovery to the injured. He appreciated the law enforcing agencies for responding to the attack immediately. He also asked for a judicial inquiry into the incident that should also be made public demanding also publication of the inquiry report of the last year attack on APS.-PR