ISLAMABAD: Chief of the Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif vowed on Tuesday to fight terrorism till its elimination from the country.

Gen Sharif was quoted in a twitter posting by ISPR chief Maj Gen Asim Bajwa as saying: “We will continue to go after inhuman beasts and their facilitators till their final elimination.”

The army chief described the Peshawar school attack as a “ghastly act of cowardice” and said the perpetrators of the attack were “not only enemies of Pakistan but enemies of humanity”.

Gen Sharif, who was in Quetta at the time of the attack and later travelled to Peshawar, said he and his troops, who are battling terrorists in North Waziristan and Khyber, remained undeterred by the attack on schoolchildren.

“They have hit at the heart of the nation, but let me reiterate they can’t in any way diminish the will of this great nation,” he said, adding: “Our resolve to fight terror has taken new height”.

Meanwhile, Defence Minis­ter Khawaja Asif said the Zarb-i-Azb operation would continue with full force.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2014