More than 50% security threats averted across country: DG ISPR

RAWALPINDI (92 News) - ISPR DG Major General Babar Iftikhar has said that more than 50 per cent of security threats across country were prevented by the armed forces.

Speaks about country's success against terrorism, challenges in press conference, Major General Babar Iftikhar at present, no organised terrorist structure is operating in Pakistan.

He said the press conference is being held to tell the people of Pakistan about the country’s success against terrorism and brief them about the challenges it is currently facing.

He said that COAS Qamar Bajwa would visit Quetta this week. "We have already informed the world in the dossier that Balochistan is a key target of India," he added.

The DG ISPR said that the last decade was challenging for Pakistan. "India saboteur activities continued on the eastern border. Activities of banned organizations continued on the western border," he added.

DG ISPR Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar said that they countered terrorism through the Operation Raddul Fasaad. "Over 300,000 secret operations were conducted. Today there was no organized infrastructure of organized terrorism," he declared.

He said that Pakistan had always fully responded to Indian ceasefire violations CFVs. "We thwarted over 50 security risks across the country. Terrorism reduced by 95 percent in Karachi. A 98 percent reduction has been witnessed in kidnap for ransom cases," he declared.

The DG ISPR said that COVID-19 had jeopardized economic and food situation in the country. "Economic activities have been restored to deal with the challenges. All state institutions and the nation forcefully countered these challenges," he added.

Pakistan has faced very challenging times during the last 10 years, he remarked. In 2020, our challenges including the locust invasion and COVID-19 pandemic. Along with this, India continued to violate the ceasefire agreement on our eastern border, while many terror attacks occurred on our western border.

“Despite all these challenges, the Pakistan Army, intelligence agencies and people remained united to combat all them.”

Ensure security of border with Afghanistan, Iran

"We have taken steps to ensure the security of our border with Afghanistan and Iran and initiated many socio-economic projects on the western border," he said.

Indian lies exposed

"We even brought to the forefront the lies being spread by India," said Major General Iftikhar. The world has acknowledged it too because the truth always prevails, he added.

Operation Raddul Fasaad

The Pakistan Army media spokesperson then presented three years’ statistics of Operation Raddul Fasaad.

Pakistan conducted a total of 371, 173 intelligence-based operations during the operation during which 72,227 weapons were recovered. Most IBOs (170,079) were conducted in Sindh followed by 89,827 in KP, 77,263 in Balochistan and 34,004 in Punjab.

From 2007 to 2008, the Pakistan government had only 37% control of KP. Today, all tribal districts are under government control, he said.

In 2013, Pakistan was reporting 90 terrorist attacks a year and now the number has decreased to 13, said the ISPR chief.

He credited law enforcement agencies with averting 50 terrorist attacks in 2020. “Suicide attacks have gone down by 97%.”

In 2014, Karachi ranked number six on the Crime Index and is now on 103, he said. In Karachi, terror attacks have reduced by 95%, target killings by 98%, extortions by 99%, and kidnappings by 98%, he said.

Pakistan is trying to manage the situation at its western border by installing border terminals, biometric systems, and fencing. The fencing project on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border is 83% completed while that on the Pakistan-Iran border has been 37% completed. We hope to complete them by this year, he said.

There has been a 55% decrease in bomb blasts near border areas, and IED blasts have gone down by 16%, said the military spokesperson.

He added that this has, however, been coupled with an increase in Indian violations of the ceasefire agreements on Pakistan’s eastern border. Populated areas were also targeted by Indian border forces.

Last year, we recorded 3,097 violations and 28 people were killed, he said.

The violations have increased from 2013 to 2020. The most violations were reported in 2013, while the most people died in 2018, he told the press.

India engaging in hybrid warfare against Pakistan

"India has been engaging in hybrid warfare against Pakistan for the last 15 years and irrefutable evidence has been gathered by the EU DisInfo Lab.

The Pakistan Army chief has spoken about it on different occasions to spread awareness," the ISPR DG said. “Let’s look at what India and Pakistan have been busy doing in the last 15 years.”

Pakistan was fighting a war against terrorism and played the role of a responsible democracy, said Major General Iftikhar. In the last two decades, we have conducted 1,237 operations and killed 18,000 terrorists. Eleven thousand alQaeda terrorists were arrested too, he said.

The country also passed laws to curb terrorist activity and regularise arms trade, he said.

India has, on the other hand, done the following things:

Increased ceasefire violations

Atrocities in Jammu and Kashmir

False flag operations

Belligerence towards neighbours

Suppression of minorities

Disinformation and propaganda

Terror financing

We know that a fake network was being run by Delhi-based Srivastava group, he said, referring to Indian Chronicles. “They were involved in spreading anti-Pakistan sentiment across the globe.”

This campaign has affected Pakistan’s reputation in the last 15 years on the following fronts:

Terrorism

Social issues

Economic domain

Kashmir cause

Diplomacy

Spreading chaos

This should serve as a call to action for decision-makers to put in place a relevant framework to sanction actors and governments abusing international institutions, influencing decision makers, and misleading world opinion, he added.

Development projects initiated in Balochistan, KP

He remarked that many development projects have been initiated in Balochistan and KP.

Giving a breakdown of the projects, he said that they have started 10 health projects, 42 transport projects, three projects for social welfare, 20 for agriculture, and 18 for education.

All these projects are because of the security dividends, for which we have sacrificed a lot in the last two decades, he said.

“As a nation, we fought covid-19 with intelligence and practicality. All doctors, paramedics, and all organizations working against the virus deserve recognition for their endeavors.”

He remarked that the media played its role with responsibility and uncovered the countless Indian conspiracies.

“Our enemies are trying to divide us but we have to stay united and play our role in uniting the nation. When we took on this challenge, the enormity of this challenge was decidedly overwhelming but with Allah’s help and the resolute support of our great nation, we took it on and have taken many hits on the way but we did not relent or budge.”

During this whole course, we have come a long way as a nation, as a society, and as a military. The challenges that we overcame are now giving way to great opportunities. We are not out of the woods yet but we are almost there. “We have stayed the course and we will stay the course no matter what,” he added.