RAWALPINDI: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif headed the 178th meeting of the corps commanders at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi on Thursday.

The meeting reviewed the overall internal and external security situation in the country with particular focus on the ongoing operations. Recent upsurge in Intelligence Based Operations (IBOs) across the country also came into discussion.

Sources said that during the meeting, General Raheel took the corps commanders into confidence over the national action plan agreed upon by the country's political stakeholders.

The participants endorsed the plan and vowed that the army would work side by side with the citizens of Pakistan to counter the scourge of terrorism.

The corps commanders expressed grief over tragic loss of innocent lives in the Peshawar terrorist attack, solidarity with bereaved families and resolved not to stop operations till elimination of last terrorist from Pakistani soil.

Appreciating the resolve of the national political leadership shown during the All Parties Conference, General Raheel said that entire nation was looking towards the political and the military leadership of the country to take bold and meaningful decisions.

In the aftermath of the carnage at Peshawar's Army Public School, the country's political leadership has taken measures on emergency basis to chalk out a strategy to curb terrorism.

A decision by the political leadership to establish military courts to try suspected terrorists in order to pave way for speedy trials has been one of the major developments in this regard.

Moreover, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had also lifted a long-held moratorium on death penalty, resulting in the execution of seven death-row convicts, most of whom had attempted to target former COAS General (retd) Pervez Musharraf.