Recent terrorist attacks attempt to divide nation: DG ISPR

RAWALPINDI: The spokesman for the Pakistan military said Wednesday that the recent spate of terrorist attacks across the country was an attempt to divide the nation.

“The recent spate of terrorist attacks are highly condemnable. Our heart goes out to aggrieved brothers and sisters, we stand with them at time of grief,” Director General (DG) Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Asim Bajwa said in messages on Twitter.

Recent spate of terrorist attks highly condemnable.Our heart goes out to aggrieved brothers/sisters,we stand with them at time of grief-1/3

— AsimBajwaISPR (@AsimBajwaISPR) February 18, 2015

Bajwa’s messages came hours after a suicide bomber attacked the Qasr-e-Sakina Imambargah in Islamabad, killing three people and wounding two others.

The attacks are “an attempt to create divisiveness amongst nation, which only serves the interest of detractors of Islamic Republic of Pakistan”, he said.

Bajwa said such attacks will not succeed in undermining the nation’s resolve to deal with terrorism and extremism.

..Such acts,r attk on our most cherished religious value of peace,harmony.Nation's resolve to deal terrorism,extremism can't be undermined-3

— AsimBajwaISPR (@AsimBajwaISPR) February 18, 2015

Pakistan has faced a surge in terrorist attacks in recent weeks.

On Tuesday, a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself outside Police Lines area of Lahore, killing at least five people including police personnel.

The gun-and-suicide-bomb attack on the Qasr-e-Sakina imambargah in Islamabad today was the third such terrorist attack on an imambargah in the country in the last three weeks.

Last week, Taliban militants carried out a suicide attack at the Imamia Masjid Imambargah in Peshawar, killing 20 people and injuring 50 others.

On January 30, terrorists attacked the Imambargah Maula Karballa in Shikarpur, killing over 60 people.

Since June last year, the army has been waging a major campaign against strongholds of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other militants in the North Waziristan tribal area, killing over 2,000 terrorists.

The military stepped up its fight against militants since Taliban gunmen massacred more than 150 people, most of them children, at the Army Public School in Peshawar on December 16.

Following the massacre, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ended a six-year moratorium on the death penalty and has since hung a number of convicted terrorists.