Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Coordinator for the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (NACTA) Ihsan Ghani on Monday said that a total of 1,808 terrorists had been killed and 5,611 arrested since the National Action Plan (NAP) was launched last year.

About 951 of the terrorists were killed in the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA), 455 in Sindh, 197 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 135 in Punjab, 68 in Balochistan and two in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), he added.

Talking to the media after a monthly meeting of NACTA about the implementation status of 20 points of the NAP, Ihsan Ghani said a majority of the terrorists was arrested in Sindh, KP and FATA, where their number was 1,665, 1,572 and 1,256, respectively.

Giving details about the operations under the NAP, he said 122,772 ‘combing operations’ were carried out, while 142,335 suspects were arrested.

Besides conducting 2,012,765 stop-and-search operations, around 4,230 intelligence-based operations (IBOs) were carried out, while 119,794 calls were received at Helpline 1717, he added.

The coordinator said some 411 executions had been carried out under the NAP – 380 in Punjab, 18 in Sindh, six in KP, five in Balochistan and two in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

Regarding establishment of special trial courts, he said 11 courts had been notified.

Ihsan said funds had been provided for NACTA with allotment of premises for it. A Joint Intelligence Directorate (JID) was also being established, he added.

With regard to curbing terrorist financing, the coordinator said 498 first information reports (FIRs) were registered under the hawala/hundi (by the FIA) and 692 accused were arrested. As part of the anti-money laundering measures, the authorities concerned registered 230 FIRs and captured 341 persons, while 126 accounts were also frozen.

He said that proscribed organisations had been categorised with 43 as violent against the state, 12 as non-violent but anti-state and seven as armed but not anti-state.

Regarding religious persecution, he said data had been collected from different sources to prepare proposals for policymakers.

On the issue of glorification of terrorists, he said that strict implementation was being made through the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Any violation was instantly reported to the quarters concerned and action was taken, he added.

He said a committee had been constituted under Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz to finalise FATA reforms.

Giving data about Karachi operation, the coordinator said that a 69 percent decrease had been registered in incidents of target killing, 50 percent in murders, 80 percent in incidents of terrorism and 30 percent in robberies.

On the matter of Balochistan reconciliation, Ihsan Ghani said dialogue with exiled Baloch leaders had been initiated.

Regarding incidents of sectarian terrorism, he said some 656 incidents were reported during the last six years – 19 of them this year alone.

He said the date of return for registered Afghan refugees (POR holders) was December 31, while for undocumented Afghan refugees was November 15 this year.