Nisar calls for international unity against terrorism

LONDON: Minister for Interior and Narcotics Control Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan here on Wednesday called for international unity against terrorism and urged the west to stop correlation between Islam and terrorism.
Speaking at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) here, the minister said that Islam was opposite of terrorism and those who do not know should read about the religion. “Islam teaches tolerance and is a religion of peace and coexistence,” he added.
“Terrorists quote religious teachings out of the context and are misusing the message of Islam. They have their own distorted and warped understanding of Islam,” he remarked.The minister said that 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 that the Muslim community stood against the French incident but the French publication responded by publishing the same sketches again further exacerbating the divisions. He said that 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 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.”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 even at that time was ungovernable 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 and no marketplace, mosque, school and church were sacrosanct for the terrorists for 13 years.
He said that 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 the interior ministry.”
The minister said that 33 intelligence agencies were working in Pakistan and there was no intelligence sharing and coordination 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.”
Nisar said that a lot of intelligence was shared with provinces before major terrorist attacks in the country 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.”
“We are moving forward with full political consensus on the National Action Plan countering terrorism and hate speech and embarking on madrassah reforms.”The minister said that over the last 14 years, incidents similar to attack on Army Public School Peshawar had taken place and in one of the attacks 125 women and children were killed in Meena bazaar in Peshawar.
Chaudhry Nisar was of the view that Pakistan had many 9/11s and in APS attack the terrorists wanted to kill over 1,000 students 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.”