PESA slams ‘irresponsible statements’ on Quetta blast

RAWALPINDI: The Pakistan Ex-Servicemen Association (PESA) on Thursday dubbed irresponsible the statements of some politicians against the backdrop of Quetta bombing.

It expressed surprise over the statement of the prime minister in which he has called for improved coordination between the institutions combating terrorism.

“This is a failure of the government if the counter terrorism bodies are not coordinating which should be accepted,” it said in a statement.

“Intelligence Bureau (IB) and police should be cleansed of politics or the authorities should accept their incompetence.

“Those who are blaming military intelligence agencies should know that internal security is the job of departments like the IB, police and CID and their weakness spurs the terrorists.”

PESA said that blaming RAW for every incident is not enough. The government should look deeper into the issue to bring culprits to book.

It said that in 2014 after the Army Public School attack in Peshawar, coordination between all security and spy agencies was decided under the National Action Plan. National Counter Terrorism Authority Pakistan (Nacta) was given the task for coordination etc., but it is still inactive.

Different institutions are not cooperating with Nacta and its budget has been slashed, which indicates the priorities of the government.

“Civilian security agencies and police are politicised which has provided an opportunity to the enemies of Pakistan to play with the lives of innocent people. Therefore, all the military and civilian departments should improve coordination to counter the conspiracies of hostile states and non-state actors.” Members of PESA demanded extension in the tenure of military courts and advised the government not to act on American pressure to jump into the Afghan war as it was a conspiracy to further destabilise the country.