UK helping in Operation Zarb-e-Azb: Cameron

LONDON: British Prime Minister David Cameron revealed that Britain was helping Pakistan in certain aspects of operation Zarb-e-Azb.
He urged every segment of society to play its part in order to prevent young Muslims from joining hands with extremists and militants such as the Islamic State, stressing that the militants were distorting the teachings of Islam.
In an exclusive interview with The News at the Conservative Party headquarters here, just days before the general election, the premier hailed Britain as “the most successful multi-racial democracy on earth” and called for the Asian community to vote for Tory policies on May 7.
Cameron praised Pakistan’s fight against terrorism and its sacrifices in the war, and assured that Britain stands side by side with Pakistan in its efforts to eliminate terrorism. He also referred to his weekend meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at Downing Street, describing the talks as a “good discussion” about “very strong” bilateral relations.
“We had a good discussion about trade and investment ... Everything we are doing to help build up Pakistan’s economy. We talked about the enormous aid programme that Britain has in Pakistan, it’s one of our biggest aid programmes anywhere in the world,” he said.
Cameron acknowledged Pakistan’s sacrifices in the war against terrorism and declared that Britain stood by Pakistan in this war. He also revealed that Britain was helping Pakistan in some sections of the Zarb-e-Azb operation aimed at weeding out terrorists from the tribal areas. He stressed that the war against terrorism is a common fight for both the countries and reiterated his earlier remarks that “Pakistan’s enemy is enemy of Britain”.
He also referred to the terrorist attacks in Pakistan, particularly the school attack in Peshawar in December in which 140 children were massacred by Taliban terrorists. “I think those attacks in Peshawar were just horrific you know if that doesn’t convince people, the evils of terrorism so frankly, nothing will convince them,” he said.
In a message of support to the Muslim community of Britain, Cameron was categorical that there was no place for Islamophobia in the British society. “We should be intolerant of Islamophobia as we should be intolerant of anti-Semitism and other forms of racial and religious hatred,” he said.
He added that the government was taking steps against religious hatred but there was the need for more efforts in this regard. “We do a lot to stamp them out, we have Tell Mama programme here in the UK which has been very powerful and but we must keep our efforts up.”
The prime minister defended the government’s response, when asked what steps had been taken to stop extremism in UK as 600 young Muslims have gone to Syria. The government, he said, passed the new counterterror legislation “which is important because now police can take away people’s passports and can stop people from travelling to these countries and these are important steps”.
He said that these extremist and radicalised elements perverted the teachings of Islam, adding that whether it was the Islamic State or al-Qaeda, it’s a stain on true religion of Islam. He called for joint efforts to fight and defeat their extremist ideology.
“They are killing people in Pakistan and in Europe, we need to stand together and fight it,” said the prime minister. “Everyone needs to play a role as the government can’t do this alone, the police can’t do this alone.”
In a passionate appeal to the Muslim community leaders, he said: “We need schools, communities, universities, parents everyone to play their part in combating this cancer of extremism. Some of it is online, some of these people are being radicalised entirely on the internet and we have to take more action to take down the radicalised websites and the pages of hatred on the internet.”
Cameron hailed the achievements of the Pakistani community members, saying they were doing well in business and commerce and increasingly in politics. Among the Tory ranks, he noted: “We have people like Rehman Chishti, a Conservative candidate from Wealden Nussrat Ghania, young British Muslim woman, Sajid Javed sitting around the cabinet table, whose father was a first generation immigrant from Pakistan.”
He said: “I think we’re doing better but there’s always more to be done in terms of making sure that we are, as I want us to be the most successful multi-racial democracy on Earth and I want us to be the place where people can make the most of their talents and I think there’s still more to be done in terms of educational opportunity getting more young British-Pakistanis apprenticeships and into universities and the sort of integration we want to see”.
About new immigration laws, he was asked that there are some concerns in Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi communities that the family links have weakened because of a tougher legislation, Cameron termed the laws fair, saying: “The changes we made are fair. I think that it’s important to support new arrivals in the country so we’re not proposing to change that.”
David Cameron hailed the successes of the Asian Community of Britain in every walk of life here and urged them to play even a greater role in politics.The Conservative Party leader emphasised the importance of Asian vote bank in the general elections next week.
He described how he played an important role in the grant of Generalised System of Preference-Plus (GSP-Plus) status to Pakistan by the European Parliament.He said he pushed the proposal very hard. “I was a lone voice. Because I pushed so hard, we helped to get there because I thought it was so important to demonstrate Britain’s commitment to trade and free trade to Pakistan, particularly, in the light of the appalling floods and other disasters that are taking place,” he said.
Cameron praised the efforts of British-Pakistani MP Rehman Chishti, saying that he was doing a “wonderful job” for Muslims, “going around mosques and community centres and talking with people”.
He said Chishti had been doing this work “on my behalf and he reports back to me and he has, I think, done some really good work”. When asked if Chishti would be a cabinet minister, he replied that Rehman “is making good progress” and that he hoped he “will become great leader”.
He said Daily Jang is playing an important role for British Pakistani community. Asked if he knew Daily Jang, he said he has heard a lot about it and knows that the newspaper is playing a good role for Pakistani community in the UK.