Military offensive not needed in South Punjab, says IG Pak Punjab

Multan, June 23 (ANI): Punjab Inspector General of Police Tariq Saleem Dogar has said that there is no need of a military operation in the province as there were no ‘no go’ areas in the region, which has witnessed severe bloodshed in the recent past.

Dogar, while holding an open court here, also rejected the view that it was the madrassas in the province that were providing safe havens to the terrorists.

“No seminary in South Punjab was providing training to the militants and if someone has concrete evidence he should come to us. Terrorism is a universal problem and should not be associated with any particular area,” The News quoted Dogar, as saying.

It is pertinent to mention here that Interior Minister Rehman Malik had admitted that South Punjab, where more than 44 percent of country’s madrassas are, was fast becoming a terror hub.

Malik had said that following the ’successful’ military operations in Swat and FATA, the government was now chalking out a strategy to dismantle the terror network in South Punjab.

Demands for a Swat and Malakand type military operation in Punjab gained momentum after last month’s brazen terror siege of the two Ahmedi mosques in Lahore, in which over 90 people were killed and over 150 sustained injuries.

However, the provincial government led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) appears to be hesitant to carry out any offensive against militant groups based in the region.

Even Malik had stressed that it was important to reign in the Punjab based terror groups, which have acquired dangerous proportion by joining hands with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda extremists of Waziristan, but he too backed off from his stance soon after. (ANI)