Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Lieutenant General Asim Bajwa has said there is not a single hideout of the terrorists in Pakistan.

In an interview with Chinese news agency, he said Pakistan Army had cleared all areas in North Waziristan and Khyber tribal region. “The security forces have killed nearly 3,500 militants and destroyed 992 hideouts,” said Bajwa.

“I can confirm there is presently no physical hideout of terrorists in Pakistan and areas in North Waziristan including the mountainous Shawal Valley near the Afghan border and Tirah Valley in Khyber Agency have been cleared,” he added.

He said the security forces were now engaged in combing operations in urban areas to break the network of the terrorists, their sympathisers, facilitators and financers.

Bajwa said around 22,000 intelligence based operations (IBOs) had been conducted so far by the intelligence agencies along with civilian law enforcement agencies including police in which hundreds of suspects had been arrested.

Answering a question about repeated ceasefire violations by India along the Line of Control (LoC), he said India had scaled up ceasefire violations along the LoC. As many as 25,000 rounds from small arms, machine guns and mortars were fired on the Pakistani side of the LoC on Wednesday, he said. “What we see is that there is more intensified firing along the LoC, and of course, when there is more firing, the situation does escalate. The environment also escalates when there is more rhetoric, more statements and more pronouncements by the Indian side,” Bajwa added.