Pakistan Army unleashes smoke & mirrors at FATF; claims 375k anti-terror ops on own soil

Amid ongoing virtual FATF plenary, which will decide fate of debt-ridden Pakistan, Rawalpindi-based Pak army on Monday claimed 375,000 intelligence-based anti-terror operations were conducted in country in last four years to reduce urban terrorism and dismantle related networks. Pakistan's claims are highly dubious, seeing as it is well kwn that its crackdowns on its vast terror network are mostly cosmetic in nature, with Pak army, ISI and deep state being masterminds behind using terrorism as an instrument of state policy.

'Clear, hold, build & transfer': Pak's strategy on war against terror

Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) had placed Pakistan on grey list in June 2018. This week's meeting will decide wher Pakistan will remain in grey list or exit from it, depending on level of compliance by Islamabad on 27 points of a plan of action charted out by FATF.

Addressing media on occasion of Operation Radd-ul Fassad completing four years, Army Spokesman Major General Babar Iftikhar said Pakistan has come a long way in its fight against terrorism and efforts would continue till threat was completely wiped out.

Launched in February 2017, Operation Radd-ul Fassad -- which translates to elimination of discord -- is strategic foil to military actions against terrorists in ir tribal strongholds. It aims to curtail freedom and movement of such n-state actors and attack m when seeking refuge after ir bases have been destroyed.

" strategic intent of Raddul Fasaad was, and is, a peaceful, stable and rmalised Pakistan where people's confidence in state is restored and terrorists and extremists are rendered completely ineffective by curtailing ir freedom of action," he said.

He said 375,000 intelligence-based operations had been conducted in last four years, reducing urban terrorism and dismantling many terrorist networks. He said Raddul Fassad helped to establish writ of government on 750 sq km, seizing 72,000 foreign weapons, 5 million rounds of ammunition. Over 5,000 threat alerts were issued in this period.

spokesperson said about 1,850 incidents of terror took place from 2017-2021, while 1,684 cross-border firing incidents were also reported on Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Over 350 terrorists have been killed and several hundred arrested as part of Raddul Fasaad, spokesman said.

"Terrorism support based infrastructure has been greatly damd but still threat is t over and will take some time to completely dismantle," he said. spokesperson also said that while armed forces fight terrorists, terrorism and extremism can only be defeated by civil law enforcement ncies and society as a whole.

READ | Rahul Gandhi supports Rihanna's tweet on farmers, blames govt for sustained protests

READ | 'US to continue following India & China troop disengment reports closely': State Dept

He said that according to "whole of nation approach", every Pakistani is a sepoy of Raddul Fasaad. spokesperson said Pakistan's grand strategy in its war against terrorism was based on four concepts: "clear, hold, build and transfer."

period between 2010 and 2017 was 'clear and hold' phase while Raddul Fasaad was beginning of build and transfer' phase. He said Pakistan was t relenting in its efforts to eliminate terrorism and aggressively going against its targets and it took action against more than 78 terrorist outfits. More than 1,200 terrorists surrendered in last four years, he said.

Talking about loss of lives in armed forces, he said 450 personnel were killed during operation. He ackwledged that terrorists were using social media platforms but government was aware of it and that action was being taken to tackle threat. He said 717 cases were sent to military courts in last four years and 344 terrorists were given death sentences, of whom 58 were executed so far. Ar 106 were given life sentences.

READ | PM Modi foresees 'poriborton' in WB; tears into TMC's 'votebank' & appeasement politics

READ | Myanmar coup protests grow in strength as Army crackdowns on Civil Disobedience Movement

(With PTI inputs)