Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) in an interview with CNNhas said that the armed forces were going after terrorists “without any discrimination”.
Answering a question about the armed forces’ viewpoint of militant groups, the ISPR DG said: “There are no good terrorists…..We are going against all terrorists without any discrimination of hue and color.”
Bajwa added that the army had cleared a major part of the North Waziristan tribal region during Operation Zarb-i-Azb except for a small belt near the Pak-Afghan border.
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He further said that the operation against militant groups was underway with air and gunship helicopter strikes and these were being followed by ground operations.
“I think there is no confusion in our mind that we have to go against the phenomenon of terrorism, against all terrorists, and their abettors,” he added.
When asked if the Pakistani army was doing enough in order to tackle the issue of militancy in the region, he said: “We’re very clear and we are capable of dealing with them.”
He also compared the performance and efficiency of Pakistan’s military with that of the US and Isaf forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Responding to another question regarding the change in Pakistan’s security situation following the measures adopted after the Peshawar school massacre, Maj Gen Bajwa said: “There is a lot more security at the national level…there is a concept of security. That has been evolved and there is a review of security at every level. I think it is very difficult to guarantee that nothing of this kind happens anywhere in the world.”
The military spokesman cited the example of the recent attack in Paris and school shootouts that occur in the United States.
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He further said: “The whole nation has come together…You’ve seen the entire political leadership on one table and take certain decisions for the future of our country.”
Responding to a query about the establishment of military courts in the country, Maj Gen Bajwa said that military courts were a stopgap arrangement adopted for a period of two years. He added that the criminal justice system was undergoing reform.
Talking about relations with Afghanistan, especially in the wake of the Peshawar attack, the top military spokesman said: “Relations were already on a positive trajectory, especially ever since we had a new government in Afghanistan. There has been growing cooperation. There has been growing understanding between the two countries.”
Pakistan’s army has been fighting local and foreign terrorists in the country’s northwestern regions. The action escalated when the army launched Zarb-i-Azb operation in North Waziristan in June last year following a brazen militant attack on Karachi’s internationalairport and failure of peace talks between the government and TTP negotiators.
Another operation ‘Operation Khyber I’ was launched in Khyber Agency later in October.
North Waziristan and Khyber are among Pakistan’s seven semi-autonomous regions governed by tribal laws and lying near the Afghan border. Taliban and other Al Qaeda-linked groups that stage attacks in both Pakistan and Afghanistan are also known to have strongholds in the zone.
