Malik calls for special NA session on terrorism

ISLAMABAD, June 21 (APP): Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Tuesday requested the chair in the National Assembly for covening a special session to have a briefing on stark details about terrorism.“Let me brief the House on terrorist activities in the country. I want to expose the terrorists, who are present everywhere. There are various forces that are destablising the country,” Malik said.He said he was firm to flush out terrorism, which he termed as a cancer that had spread in every nook and corner of the country. “The nation needs to awake today,” he added.The Interior Minister said the institutions that were arms and strength of the nation should not be criticized. The security agencies had averted 1,100 sabotage acts last year that went unheeded by the public, he added.
Referring to the foreign aggression in Bajaur, Malik said every third or fourth day terrorists from Afghanistan intruded into Pakistan.
“This time, we have killed 70 of the intruders. The government is taking action against them and will continue doing so.”
The minister said the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was responsible for terrorism in the country. “The TTP recruits innocent small kids of 11 to 15 years old and prepares them as suicide bombers. It is now using young girls for the purpose,” he added.
“They (TTP) are killers of the children and the next generation.We have to rise above politics and think as a nation to counter terrorism,” he said.
He said police being a provincial subject fell under the control chief ministers. “However, if a dacoity happens somewhere in the provinces, I am blamed for it,” he added.
He acknowledged that police strength was not up to the mark and that its training ability did not conform to the set standards.
He briefed the House on the progress about the Karachi incident in which a young man was gunned down by Rangers, Abbottabad Operation and Salim Shehzad murder.
Malik commended the NADRA for identifying millions of fake votes in consultation with the Chief Election Commissioner. He held out assurance to hold fair and transparent elections.
He belied allegations of making fake identity cards at NADRA, and said the authority had an electronic system which had no such provisions.
The minister said he would keep following the political line in accordance with the principles of his leader Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed.
Paying tribute to Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto for her politics of consensus, Malik said there was no political victimization in the country since the PPP government assumed power.