ISLAMABAD: Director General Military Operations (DGMO), Major General SahirShamshad Mirza said on Tuesday that after years of devastation Pakistan wasmoving towards peace.
“Situation has reverted from hopelessness to hope. There is an increasedsense of hope and anticipation now,” he said while speaking at IslamabadInternational Counter Terrorism Forum here at a local hotel.
The three-day forum organized by National Counter Terrorism Authority(NACTA) kicked off on Tuesday with an aim to highlight Pakistan’s endeavorsand achievements in the war against terror.
Talking about Pakistan’s contributions in the war on terror, the DGMO saidthat due to terrorism Pakistan suffered around 76,000 nationwide casualtiesand $123 billion in economic losses.
He said that in the year 2008 a comprehensive national response was devisedto cope with the menace of terrorism.
He presented a complete detail of various operations launched by PakistanArmy, including Operation Rah-e-Rast (launched in 2009) OperationRah-e-Nijat (followed by Rah-e-Rast), Oper-ation Zarb-e-Azb (launched in2013) and the ongoing operation Radd-ul-Fasaad.
He said that all these operations were launched to deal with anti-stateelements and crush terrorism. He said that Pakistan got tremendous successthrough these indiscriminate and effective operations and the result wasthat peace and stability were returning to the country.
He expressed the concern at the presence of Daesh in Afghanistan statingthat the presence of terrorists there was having a direct influence onPakistan’s security.
He said Pakistan had taken a number of steps for effective management ofPak-Afghan border. He said that 73 wings of the Frontier Constabulary werebeing raised for the effective management of the Pak-Afghan border adding,“Of which, 29 wings have already been set up. This will help in transfer ofauthority from the military to the semi-military setup.”
He said that Pakistan Army was also engaged in construction of 750 borderforts.
Besides Pakistan has begun fencing of the 2,611 kilometres long porousborder. The DGMO said that Pakistan Army was assisting the government inthe implementation of National Action Plan (NAP).