396 major terrorist plans foiled in 2014-15

ISLAMABAD: Authoritative sources have revealed that prior to the arrest of Kalbushan Yadav, the Indian terrorist employed by Raw, during the years 2014-2015 some 396 major terrorist plans were detected and averted all over the country. These included suicide bombings, vehicle borne IEDs (VBIED), targeting of VIPs, VVIPs and law enforcement agencies personnel.

The sources said that of the 396 terrorist plans that were stopped in their tracks, 22 were foiled in Islamabad, Azad Jammu, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB). However, most of the incidents successfully dealt with were in Balochistan i.e. 188. In Sindh, 56 sabotage activities were tackled by intelligence agencies, 85 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata and 45 in the Punjab province.

The sources said during the operations, terrorist networks of RAW, TTP, LeJ, AQIS and various sectarian extremist splinter groups were unearthed. They added that in these terrorist plans, the organizations involved were the TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan), RAW (Indian Research and Analysis Wing), AQ (Al-Qaeda), JuA (Jamaat-ul-Ahrar), JuL (Jaish-ul-Islam), LeJ (Lashkar-e-Jhangvi), LI (Lashkar-e-Islam), ASWJ (Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat), BSNs (Baloch Sub Nationalists), NDS (National Directorate of Security of Afghanistan) and LeB (Lashkar-e-Balochistan) among others. Also included were some other HIAs (Hostile Intelligence Agencies).

According to data released recently, Pakistan has witnessed a decrease of 34 percent in terrorism activities during the year 2015 as compared to 2014. The incidents of terrorism were reduced from 5,496 in 2014 to 3,625 in 2015. 

Earlier, this year, the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), General Raheel Sharif, had said that 2016 would be the ‘Year of National Solidarity’ and also the final year of terrorism in the country. “The new year will be the year when terrorism will end,” he had said during an address in Balochistan in January 2016.  --Waqar Ahmed