January 11, 2007	Thursday	Zilhaj 20, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 10: The government has, for the first time, evolved a national crisis management strategy, with the help of the United Kingdom, to effectively cope with any national crisis and combat terrorism.

The strategy was chalked out on the second day of a three-day security conference on Wednesday.

The counter-terrorism ‘table top exercise’, an indoor war-game, was named as ‘Synergy One’. It aimed at developing synergised response to internal security crisis at the federal level.

The event is being attended by security experts from the UK and representatives of more than 20 departments, including armed forces, intelligence agencies, civilian security agencies, provincial governments and federal ministries of interior, health, information, food, agriculture and livestock.

During the second day session of the conference, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said that the security agencies needed to have a proper set of standard operating procedures (SOPs) in place for a better coordination to meet any untoward situation.

"We need to have a better know how, capabilities, unified approach, inter-state and inter-agency cooperation to tackle the problem of terrorism which respects no borders or ideology," he said.

Mr Aziz called for eradicating the root causes of terrorism and urged law-enforcement agencies to be prepared to meet the challenge posed by terrorists with a firm resolve.

"The strategy is the first of its kind in the civilian set up to effectively cope national crisis and terrorism ," Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said.

"Basically, it is a crisis response exercise to deliver (an effective) inter-agencies response," NCMC Director-General Brig Javed Iqbal Cheema told Dawn.

Earlier, the prime minister told the participants of the conference that security agencies who had been provided with adequate financial assistance, should take benefit of the latest technology and enhance their forensic capabilities.