NAP efficient in blocking funds of terror outfits: DG ISPR

Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major-General Asim Bajwa said that Pakistan’s National Action Plan (NAP) was proving to be effective in cutting the funds of terrorist outfits operating in the country.

The NAP had been formulated in the wake of the Peshawar school attack to chalk out a comprehensive strategy to combat terrorism. The 20-point plan was agreed upon by all political parties.

Speaking to Russian magazine Sputnik, Bajwa underscored that one of the most significant achievements of NAP included military operations in parts of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), intelligence-based operations across the country and the choking of funds of terrorist groups.

He said that even though parts of the NAP had already been launched, some of these required more time due to “political challenges”.

He added that youngsters were the primary targets of terrorist recruitment, adding that Pakistan would be working on measures focusing on the youth to counter extremism.

“We started with some pilot projects for the deradicalisation program that now has extended to the national level,” Bajwa told the Russian magazine.

He stated that one of the recent incidents proving the phenomenon of increased radicalisation was the Safoora bus attack in which an “educated youth” was involved. Bajwa, however, emphasised that this did not mean that the entire Pakistani youth has been radicalised or is involved in extremism.

Last month, criminals with privileged university education were arrested in connection with the Safoora carnage and the killing of rights activist Sabeen Mahmud. The suspects had also allegedly confessed to grenade attacks on schools, bomb attacks on police vans, attacking a naval officer and a Rangers brigadier, carrying out a gun attack on an American educationist and targeted killing of police officials.
Among them was Saad Aziz alias Tin Tin alias John — a graduate of the prestigious Institute of Business Administration (IBA) — who is said to be the mastermind of the attack on Sabeen Mahmud.