AVA - Pakistan’s NSC meets to discuss growing threat of terrorism

No country will be allowed to provide sanctuaries to terrorists, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), that pose a threat to Pakistan. Pakistan’s National Security Committee (NSC) on Monday said.

Afghan Voice Agency (AVA)_Monitoring, According to a statement issued at the end of a two-day NSC meeting, the committee said: “Pakistan’s security is uncompromisable and the full writ of the state will be maintained on every inch of Pakistan’s territory.”

While the statement did not name Afghanistan directly, Pakistani media reported that the warning was aimed at the Islamic Emirate.

“No country will be allowed to provide sanctuaries and facilitation to terrorists and Pakistan reserves all rights in that respect to safeguard her people,” the NSC statement read.

The meeting, which was chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and attended by key ministers, services chiefs, and top intelligence officials, was called to discuss the surge in terrorist attacks and the deepening economic crisis in Pakistan.

Most of the attacks have been carried out by the TTP, which Pakistan claims enjoys safe havens and freedom to operate in Afghanistan.

The increase in border incidents involving Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) forces was also discussed at the forum.

A few days ago Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, implied in a TV interview, that Pakistan was planning strikes against TTP hideouts in Afghanistan if IEA authorities failed to act against the group and hand over the TTP leaders and fighters living there.

On Monday, the IEA’s defense ministry said in a statement that Sanaullah’s words were “provocative and baseless,” and that Afghanistan was “ready to defend its territorial integrity and independence”.