KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Wednesday engaged in a detailed consultation with the civil and military officials of Balochistan after meeting the Karachi Corps Commander where the governments and security establishments working in the two provinces agreed to forge an alliance in a joint effort against terrorism, officials said.

Officials in the Sindh government said that soon after meeting the Karachi Corps Commander, Mr Shah flew to Quetta to offer his condolences in the wake of Monday’s attack on the police training centre in the provincial capital.

During his brief visit, officials said, the chief minister, along with provincial Ministers Nisar Khuhro and Hazar Khan Bijarani, held detailed meetings with Commander of Southern Command Lt Gen Aamir Riaz and Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri.

“During the meeting,” an official said, “the Sindh chief minister spoke threadbare about the challenges being faced by the two provinces relating to acts of terrorism, especially the flow of terrorists from certain districts of Balochistan to the northern parts of Sindh.”

They added that the senior civil and military officials in Balochistan agreed with Mr Shah and his senior cabinet members to form certain working groups comprising officials from the two provinces for the purpose of security.

Officials claimed that Mr Shah expressed his concern over the continued flow of “terrorists” or their facilitators from certain districts of Balochistan to the bordering regions of Sindh. He referred to some past militant attacks reported from Jacobabad and Shikarpur districts in which the perpetrators or their collaborators were found to have links to Balochistan or the northwest of the country.

According to the officials, the governments of both provinces agreed to engage the army and paramilitary troops on the bordering regions to curb “cross-border terrorism”.

Along with this, they added, police of the two provinces would form a working group while a couple more would be established between the paramilitary agencies and bureaucracy of Sindh and Balochistan.

“These working groups will share intelligence and exchange sensitive information with each other likely on a day-to-day basis as a part of the joint effort to secure them from possible terrorist attacks,” said a senior official.

Sources in the Sindh government said the chief minister’s consultation with the Balochistan authorities were “immensely successful” as they got “an encouraging response from the neighbouring province”.

Officials said the authorities in Sindh were immensely perturbed over reports, which were also discussed in a recent meeting on law and order, which showed that militant organisations were getting shelter in Balochistan after their networks in Waziristan were dismantled in the ongoing military operation.

The reports suggested that such organisations might attack parts of Sindh, including its capital Karachi.

The officials added that the use of Balochistan as a transit region for militants from Afghanistan planning to attack Sindh was also discussed during the chief minister’s meeting with his counterpart in Quetta.

It was learnt that a meeting of the Apex Committee in Sindh would be summoned early next month in which details vis-a-vis formation of the working groups would be finalised.

Published in Dawn October 27th, 2016