LAHORE: Provincial Home Minister retired Col Shuja Khanzada says that geo-tagging of 13,794 seminaries has been completed under the National Action Plan (NAP) and data is available to security agencies.

He said this while talking to a delegation, led by National Management College Dean Naeem Aslam, on Friday at Darbar Hall, Civil Secretariat. Chief Secretary Khizar Hayat Gondal was also present.

Mr Khanzada said security forces, including army, Rangers and police, were carrying out operations under NAP to nab militants and their facilitators in the light of authentic information by intelligence agencies. He said the forces had defeated militants and also dismantled their networks.

The minister called the establishment of Counter-Terrorism Force a big achievement of the Punjab government, saying it had shown encouraging results to fight against militants. He said there were several intelligence reports about the presence of terrorist elements and their facilitators in some seminaries, NGOs and other institutions and a strict action would be taken against them.

Mr Khanzada said the government had amended laws regarding terrorism, loudspeakers, objectionable posters, wall-chalking and hate material to establish the writ of the State.

He said that special machines were being installed in metropolitan to check the record of family members through thumb prints. He said schools, worship places and markets were not safe before the implementation of NAP and now law and order had improved significantly.

Mr Khanzada said economic development could not be possible without achieving peace in society. He said that zero tolerance policy was being followed against banned organisations involved in sectarian and terrorist activities. He said for the first time in the history of the country political parties, army and other institutions were on one page in the war against terrorism which had brought about positive results.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2015

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