Army busy on western border but also vigilant  on eastern border: ISPR

PESHAWAR: Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Lt Gen Asim Salim Bajwa said here on Tuesday that the armed forces are busy on the western borders but are also closely monitoring the situation on the eastern border.

“Our soldiers are firmly established at the eastern border and are closely monitoring all developments. We are fully prepared to respond to any attack,” Bajwa said.The ISPR director general was talking to reporters after the “Special operation and security review” meeting held at the Corps Headquarters, Peshawar, with General Raheel Sharif in the chair.

Corps Commander, Peshawar, Lt Gen Hidayatur Rehman, and senior military officials attended the meeting.The meeting discussed the overall security situation and recent terrorist attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata, the outcome of the now-concluded military operation Zarb-e-Azb and the rehabilitation of displaced people.

The DG ISPR said the intelligence agencies had arrested six people who facilitated the terrorists in targeting a residential colony in Warsak near Peshawar and the district courts in Mardan.

He said Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif, during his recent visit to Germany, had raised the issue with the German leadership and decided to highlight it in the upcoming meeting of the Resolute Support Mission. “We are sharing intelligence with the Government of Afghanistan, but my request is that we should remain watchful and united,” Lt Gen Bajwa said.

Lt Gen Bajwa said the army chief was in Germany on an official visit when the terrorist acts took place in Peshawar and its surrounding areas.The four suicide bombers who had entered the residential colony were killed by the local security guards, he said.

He said four people were involved in the facilitation process and three of them had been apprehended by the security agencies while the fourth one, who brought the four assailants to the border, was in Afghanistan.

“The attack was planned in Afghanistan and the facilitator is still there,” he said.He explained that another facilitator received the four men on the border and brought them to Warsak. “In Warsak, a third facilitator provided them shelter and the next day took them to the area for undertaking the attack,” he added.

Two of the alleged facilitators were produced before the media. They were handcuffed and blindfolded escorted by sleuths of an intelligence agency with their faces covered.The security personnel later removed covers from the faces of the two alleged facilitators but didn’t allow the media to talk to them. Both were bearded and seemed between 25-30 years of age.

Twelve people, including lawyers, policemen and civilians, were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the district courts in Mardan.Lt Gen Bajwa said both networks of the facilitators had been busted on Tuesday. He said three facilitators were involved in the Mardan suicide attack that was planned in Afghanistan. “The first facilitator brought the bomber to the Torkham border. The second facilitator received him at the border and took him to Mardan where he was handed over to a third facilitator and provided the suicide jacket. The three facilitators have been apprehended,” he said.

However, he added that the facilitators would not be shown to the media as they were in the custody of intelligence agencies.

The ISPR chief said the security personnel had recovered suicide jackets from the three facilitators in Mardan. He said they had planned to target some important positions, including the branch of National Bank of Pakistan and the Police Lines in Mardan.

“I would like to tell you that our intelligence network is doing a tremendous job. They have recently averted 14 terror bids,” Lt Gen Bajwa disclosed.He said the networks of facilitators had been encircled due to effective work and coordination of intelligence agencies.

According to Lt Gen Bajwa, the security forces conducted 1,470 intelligence-based operations (IBOs) and combing operations in KP and Fata since July.Regarding the border management with Afghanistan, the ISPR chief said almost 20 percent of the posts had been built where the army and paramilitary Frontier Corps personnel had been deployed. He said it had started showing results and helped control the cross-border movement.

However, he said the situation would improve once similar posts were established on the Afghan side of the border.About Rajgal in the remote Tirah Valley in Khyber Agency, he said Rajgal is covered with snow throughout the year and is an easy point for cross-border movement. “Work is underway to set up a permanent post there and stop cross-border movement,” he added.

About the slow pace of rehabilitation process of the internally displaced persons, he said it was discussed during the meeting. He pointed out that 75 percent of uprooted people had returned to their villages and towns. He added efforts were being made to complete the repatriation process by end of November.