PESHAWAR: Awami National Party central general secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain has expressed his concern over the fact that banned outfits are still freely operating in Punjab though the National Action Plan (NAP) was announced after the Army Public School tragedy in Peshawar last year.

Speaking at a function held in the memory of slain APS students in a school of Bacha Khan Educational Foundation in Charsadda, he said that the entire nation was shocked by the tragedy. He said that the freedom with which banned outfits operated in Punjab even now was disappointing as it showed as if NAP was meant only for tribal areas like Waziristan.

He said that Punjab seemed to be beyond any such action plan meant to root out terrorism and religious extremism from the country, according to a press release issued by the Bacha Khan Markaz here.

Mr Hussain stated that if the country wanted to move on the right path to eliminate terrorism and extremism then all the points of NAP should have been followed, but it looked as if ‘we have not yet learnt lesson from the APS tragedy’.

Mian Iftikhar says NAP should not be limited to tribal areas

He said that banned outfits were active in Punjab despite the government claims to the contrary. He said that the 20-point NAP was not followed entirely and only some points relevant to the military action in Waziristan were implemented in true spirit. He observed that this would not eliminate terrorism if the entire plan was not implemented.

The ANP leader said that if NAP was not implemented in the entire country and was limited to just tribal areas it would not bear fruit. He said that over 60 banned outfits were operating freely in Punjab and no government agency had the courage to check them. He said that it was clearly mentioned in NAP to take action against the terrorist and banned organisations even if they changed names.

Mr Hussain said that despite witnessing the APS tragedy if NAP was not fully implemented, it should be no surprise that such terrorist acts would continue to take lives of the innocent.

He said that recent attacks in Parachinar and other places had proved that the terrorist elements and their networks were still able to strike, which was a matter of great concern.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2015