Hangings to go on speedily without pressure: Nisar

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Interior Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said on Wednesday that the threat of war was hovering around persistently, however, the hangings of convicted terrorists would be carried out on fast-track basis without succumbing to any pressure whatsoever.
He said that every individual should play his role in eliminating terrorism from the country.He said this while chairing a review meeting of the National Action Plan (NAP) convened at the Committee Room of the Interior Ministry. Interior Secretary Shahid Khan, National Counter-Terrorism Authority (Nacta) national coordinator and other senior officials attended the meeting which was called to review the progress on the implementation of the 20-point National Action Plan (NAP) approved by the prime minister a few days ago.
During the meeting, the minister stressed upon the participants that it was high time that everybody should work diligently to curb the menace of extremism once and for all with the support of the whole nation.
Expressing his satisfaction over the performance of the Interior Ministry in compiling a workable roadmap for implementing the NAP throughout the country in coordination with the provinces, he directed that Nacta should continue to maintain a close and effective coordination with all the provinces and other stakeholders in this regard.
“Though Nacta’s task is gigantic, it is of such prime importance that the whole nation is looking towards it with hope,” he said and added that it was of vital importance and they rose to the occasion to meet the expectations of the nation.
Among various other points, the minister reviewed the progress on dedicated national counter-terrorism helpline 1717 and ordered formulation of a standardised mechanism to ensure the provinces were taking requisite action on actionable intelligence received and relayed to them through this helpline.
He said the issue of unregistered Afghan refugees would be taken up with the UNHCR and Afghanistan government to settle this longstanding issue amicably. On the issue of hate speeches, the minister was briefed that reports were being sought regularly from all the provinces about the wrong use of loudspeakers and action taken on such instances.
The Nacta’s national coordinator briefed the meeting that the authority was acting as a centralised intelligence-based information point for all the provinces, armed forces and intelligence agencies and it was timely relaying information to all the relevant tiers for quick action.
The minister expressed satisfaction that the longstanding issue of unregistered and unverified SIMs in the country had been tackled by the Interior Ministry and it was only a matter of a few months when all the old SIMs would completely be re-verified.
NNI adds: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar, talking to the media after the meeting, said that at least 47 criminals who had been sentenced to death had been shortlisted and the process of hanging them would be carried out speedily.
Nisar said implementation on the National Action Plan to combat terrorism would be ensured on fast-track basis through an effective coordinated mechanism.He said the execution of Shafqat Hussain had been stopped. Nisar said that a DNA test would be conducted to determine the age of Hussain while the execution of the rest of the shortlisted criminals would be carried out soon.
The interior minister said the media was an efficient monitoring mechanism and urged it to black out the terrorists and news about them.Nisar also said that Pakistan was going through a difficult phase and nobody should misunderstand the fact that the war against terrorism had not ended yet. Operations are being conducted in the entire country on the basis of intelligence reports, he added. He said the government was taking the help of as many as 1,550 volunteers for operations against terrorists.