*RAWALPINDI: Director General of Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR)Major General Asif Ghafoor Thursday said Pakistan was standing at thewatershed of its history and prudent decisions were needed to take thecountry forward.*
“We are at the watershed of our history beyond where the period could beeither very good or otherwise. We (the nation) have to take the decisionwhere to take it,” he said at a news briefing here at ISPR.
Ghafoor said Pakistan would have to resuscitate its economy and everyonewould have to play their role for a prosperous country.
The DG ISPR said Pakistan had internal and external fault lines, which wereexploited by the enemies. Talking about neighboring India, Ghafoorexpressed concern over killing of civilian during India’s continuedceasefire violations. The ongoing year saw the highest number of civiliankillings.
“At least 55 civilians lost their lives, while 300 others suffered injuriesdue to Indian ceasefire violations,” he added.
He said Pakistan could not respond to India in the same way as it did notsuit a professional army and also because Kashmiri brothers were living onthe other side of the border. Pakistan, he said, believed in talks for adurable peace but India was continuously backing off from negotiations.
Ghafoor however, expressed the hope that the situation would change afterupcoming elections in the neighbouring country.
Talking about the War on Terror, Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor said it had beenmostly fought in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas(FATA). He noted that terrorist incidents had significantly decreased inthe country.
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“In 2013, on average around seven to eight terrorist incidents were takingplace every month. But now in 2018, this average has decreased.”
Comparing Balochistan to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA, he said in FATA,which was three per cent of the country’s geography, over 200,000 troopshad been deployed against around 65,000-70,000 in Balochistan, which was 43per cent of the country’s geography and six per cent of the population.
“After the Army Chief’s visit to Quetta, we’ve changed the deployment oftroops in Balochistan. Initially, our forces and headquarters were inQuetta, but now according to the geography we’ve split them to differentsectors and done a readjustment,” he added.
The DG ISPR said terrorist incidents as well as abduction cases haddecreased in Balochistan. The good thing was that *Ferraris *weresurrendering themselves there. In the past three years, over 2,000 of themhad surrendered.
Talking about the law and order situation in Karachi, he said it hadimproved in the last few years. In 2017, no terrorist incident took placein the city, while in 2018, only two. The security situation had improved alot and the credit for that went to the Rangers, he added.
He said the crime rate had also decreased in the mega city. “The situationin the city will improve further in the coming days,” he added.
