Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The military leadership expressed serious concerns over a story published by an English daily last week regarding an important security meeting held at the Prime Minister’s House, which alleged that there was a clash between the civilian government and the military over security issues.

The participants of the meeting expressed serious concern over the “feeding of false and fabricated story of an important security meeting held at PM House and viewed it as breach of national security”. According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif presided over a meeting at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi on Friday, which was also attended by all corps commanders and principal staff officers.

Reporter Cyril Almeida’s name was put on the Exit Control List after he wrote the news report. The Prime Minister’s Office rejected the story thrice since it was published. In the wake of the travel ban on Almeida, human rights and journalists’ organisations including the HRCP, PFUJ and CPNE protested and rallied in his support.

Meanwhile, expressing complete satisfaction over the operational preparedness of troops, the COAS reiterated the army’s resolve to defend Pakistan against a full spectrum of threat. Recounting the successes of Operation Zarb-e-Azb and the resultant stability achieved, the COAS reiterated the need for sustained efforts on internal security to defeat all hostile attempts to reverse the gains made.

The participants resolved to continue sustained and focused combing and intelligence-based operations across the length and breadth of the country to uproot terrorism, harmonising it with implementation of the National Action Plan to address extremism and other causes of terrorism, the ISPR said. The participants also held a comprehensive review of the internal and external security situation with a particular focus on prevailing environment at the Line of Control (LoC) and the operational preparedness of the Pakistan Army.

They rejected the Indian claims of ‘hoax’ surgical strikes as an attempt to divert the world’s attention away from brutalities being committed by the Indian Army against people in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK). The forum resolved that any attempt of misadventurism and irresponsible act would be met with the most befitting response.