Director General of the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Lt Gen Asim Bajwa on Friday said Pakistan has been completely cleared of any physical hideouts of terrorists.
“I can confirm that there is presently no physical hideout of the terrorists on the Pakistani soil,” said DG ISPR Lt Gen Asim Bajwa, adding that areas in North Waziristan including the mountainous Shawal Valley near the Afghan border and Tirah Valley in Khyber Agency had been cleared.
Pakistan military launched a major offensive codenamed ‘Zarb-e-Azb’ against the Pakistani Taliban and other armed groups in the North Waziristan tribal region, a former stronghold of the militants, in June 2014 after peace talks with the Taliban failed.
Lt Gen Asim Bajwa said 3,500 terrorists have been killed and 992 terrorist hideouts have been destroyed in the military operation. 546 Pakistani soldiers were martyred and 2,285 injured in the offensive.
The security forces are now carrying out intelligence-based operations (IBOs) and combing operations in urban areas to destroy the network of terrorists, their sympathizers, facilitators and financiers, the general said.
Lt Gen Asim Bajwa said that around 22,000 IBOs have been conducted so far by the intelligence agencies along with civilian law enforcement agencies, including the police. He said that hundreds of suspects have also been arrested during these targeted operations.
To a question about terrorists’ trials in special military courts, the DG ISPR said a total of 166 cases have been finalized by the courts, 107 have been given death sentences and 12 convicts have been executed after the completion of the legal process.
The special military courts were established after the Taliban attacked an army-run school in Peshawar in December 2014 and killed 140 students and teachers in the notorious terrorist attack.
