2024-07-27 19:57:21
The Pakistani Armed Forces have begun implementing a new national counter-terrorism strategy, Azm-e-Istehkam (Determination and Stability). This was announced at a press conference in Rawalpindi by Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, Director General of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) of the Ministry of Defence, Day.Az reports with reference to TASS.
“Azm-e-Istehqam is being carried out in response to the rise in terrorist attacks on Pakistan from Afghanistan, which have increased by 88% since the beginning of 2024. The banned group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, the most active anti-Pakistan terrorist organization in Afghanistan, is responsible for most of the deaths as a result of terrorist attacks,” the ISPR chief stressed.
Azm-e-Istehqam is a comprehensive counter-terrorism campaign and not a conventional military operation. “The strategy is being implemented under the National Counter-Terrorism Action Plan (NCTAP), under Azm-e-Istehqam, currently 122 operations are being carried out daily by law enforcement agencies in Pakistan against terrorists and their facilitators,” Chaudhry said.
On June 25, Pakistan’s federal government approved the Azm-e-Istehqam. Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s secretariat said the campaign was aimed at ensuring national security and aimed at expanding the fight against terrorism both within the country and against its external threat from Afghanistan. The strategy includes political and diplomatic efforts in this direction.
According to local media, Pakistani authorities made the decision to hold Azm-e-Istehkam immediately after the Chinese leadership named security as the main problem threatening the implementation of a key bilateral cooperation project to create the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.