Pakistan has eliminated terrorists sanctuaries including Haqqani network from its soil: ISPR
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RAWALPINDI- Director General Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Asif Ghafoor says Pakistan has eliminated sanctuaries of all terrorists groups, including the Haqqani Network, from its soil through a well-thought-out military campaign.
During an exclusive interview with Gulf News, he said Pakistan has paid a huge price in this campaign, including losing over 75,000 Pakistani lives and bearing a loss of more than 123 billion dollars to the national exchequer.
DG ISPR said operation Radd-ul-Fasaad has been launched to eliminate remaining disorganized residual presence of militants. He said effects of operation have visibly reduced the level of violence throughout Pakistan.
Major General Asif Ghafoor said presently there are over 200,000 Pakistani troops deployed in FATA along Pak-Afghan border. This deployment is to continue despite successes inside Pakistan as threat continues to reside inside Afghanistan, not due to lack of will but lack of capacity of the Afghan forces.
He said Pakistan has started to fence entire 2,611-km length of Pak-Afghan border and construction of new posts along the border to deny free cross-border movement of terrorists.
Asif Ghafoor said besides operations, Pakistan has undertaken major socio-economic development projects in cleared areas to carry forward relative stability to enduring peace.
