August 22, 2008	Friday	Sha'aban 19, 1429

PESHAWAR, Aug 21: NWFP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti on Thursday said sectarian violence in Dera Ismail Khan and other parts of the province had assumed genocidal shape and suggested national level efforts to promote harmony among people of different sects and faiths.

Concluding debate in the provincial assembly on the law and order situation in the province, he said the government was facing the worst type of insurgency and urged the house to adopt a collective approach to counter it.

“Lawmakers should understand the difference between law and order and insurgency. Our province and its adjacent tribal region are facing insurgency being commandeered by foreign militants from Chechnya, central Asian republics and Arabs,” he maintained.

Expressing concern over Tuesday’s bomb blast in Dera Ismail Khan, the chief minister said genocide had been started in the area and his government needed the federal government’s support in this regard.

He said he had contacted religious leaders and sought their help to cope with sectarianism in the province, adding the issue should be discussed at the national level.

Defending the ongoing military action against militants in Swat, Hangu and the Bajaur tribal region, Mr Hoti said the nation was fighting a war for its survival and if the government failed to counter insurgency in the NWFP and Fata it could spill over to other parts of the country.He said that for the first time in the history of Pakistan hundreds of thousands of people had been displaced from Swat, Hangu and Bajaur due to violence in those areas. He said the provincial government had sought help from international humanitarian organisations to assist the displaced people. He said a committee headed by two senior ministers had been constituted to hold talks with foreign relief bodies.

He admitted that the military operation had caused collateral damages in the violence-hit areas. The government, he said, had to take the harsh decision to launch the operation because it had no other option, adding peaceful means had exhausted.

“Had the Bajaur operation not been launched there would have been a different flag flying in Khar, the regional headquarters,” he said. He said the government was ready for talks with local militants, but would never negotiate with foreigners.

He said insurgents had besieged the Khar town and planned to take control of the region. He said foreign militants had become masters of the destiny of the people of Fata and they (militants) had rejected the government’s offer of negotiations.

“It’s very unfortunate that oppressors are trying to project themselves as victims,” he remarked. He said militants in Swat had withdrawn from the peace deal after receiving dictations from Waziristan.

Mr Hoti termed the insurgency in the NWFP the direct fallout of violence in the tribal region and Afghanistan. He said peace in Fata and Afghanistan was directly linked with the situation in the province.