ISLAMABAD: The centre has told the provinces to beef up security at sensitive buildings after getting intelligence reports that militants might retaliate to avenge the execution of terrorists.

According to an official of the interior ministry, the advice was issued on Saturday after a high-level meeting discussed implementation of the national anti-terrorism action plan thrashed out after the Peshawar school attack. Interior Secretary Shahid Khan was in the chair.

The official said the federal government had tried to give peace a chance and resolve the problem through talks, but the other side misconstrued the gesture as weakness, forcing the launch of a military offensive against them. “The gruesome murder of children by the extremists has proved that there is no other option but to take them on,” he remarked.

He said representatives of political parties favoured the attacks on terrorist sanctuaries.

Formation of Pak-Afghan border force, repatriation of Afghans proposed

The interior ministry official said some of the proposals given during the meeting included raising a Pakistan-Afghan border force, sending Afghan refugees back to their homeland without any delay and speedy steps to register all unregistered religious seminaries.

OFFICIALS’ ABSENCE: The absence of the chief secretary, the police chief, and the IG Prison of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from the meeting angered the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

Shireen Mazari, the party’s information secretary, criticised the government for ignoring the three key officials of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, even though the “KP has suffered more than any other province in the fight against terrorism”.

Shireen Mazari said the PTI was cooperating with the government for establishment of peace and elimination of terrorism from the country.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2014