Decision to start final round of Zarb-e-Azb

ISLAMABAD: The Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), General Raheel Sharif, had an important meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at the PM House on Tuesday, their second meeting in a week.
The meeting took place a day before Prime Minister Nawaz’s significant visit to Karachi. The two discussed matters related to Zarb-e-Azb and issues related to the security of the country. It was also decided to launch the final round of Zarb-e-Azb to cleanse the area from militants and take the operation to its logical end.
Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Prime Minister’s Adviser for National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and Special Assistant to the PM (SAPM) on Foreign Affairs also joined the two after their one-on-one meeting.
Highly-placed sources told The News that developments with regard to Afghanistan, Yemen and Fata, including the return, rehabilitation and resettlement of Temporarily Displaced Persons (TDPs), also came under discussion. The meeting lasted about three hours.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who will dash to Karachi today (Wednesday), shall maintain a hard position corruption and criminals during his course of interactions with the civil administration and Army commanders including director general Rangers.
It is understood that the prime minister and army chief had discussion about Karachi situation since the period of deployment of Rangers in Karachi is expiring later this month. The Federal government would like the continuation of the deployment.
The reports regarding Karachi heatwave and subsequent killings submitted by the two different fact-finding committees have reached to the prime minister and he will discuss the overall situation in the light of the reports which he has already gone through.
The sources clarified that the meeting between the army chief and prime minister isn’t linked with the visit of the prime minister to Karachi since they discussed number of issues. They were adamant to clean Karachi from criminals and terrorists.
It is likely that the civil and military cooperation will enhance for the purpose. The security situation on country’s eastern and western frontiers was also discussed in the meeting. The role of Indian terror sponsoring intelligence outfit ‘RAW’ also discussed by the premier and army chief that has become evident through number of episodes and happenings.