LAHORE: With firm determination to exterminate terrorism from the province, security forces announced on Saturday continuing military operations against the banned outfits and their facilitators in Punjab.

In a related development, police with the support of Pakistan Rangers personnel claimed to have killed two gangsters and injured six others during a hot pursuit in the reverine area of Rajanpur district.

“Integrated Security Mechanism will be made fully operational so as to utilise it effectively at divisional and district levels through cohesive coordination between civil and military components,” the Inter Services Public Relations said.

The announcement came after a meeting of the Joint Operations Coordination Committee (JOCC) held in Lahore.

Attended by senior civil and military officials of Punjab and heads of civil and military intelligence agencies, the committee met following a meeting held between the Punjab chief minister and the Lahore corps commander on April 5.

To that end, operations led by civil and military intelligence agencies will be launched by the army, Rangers, CTD and police as required, followed by constant review and regulation by the JOCC.

The ISPR said in a press release that the forum agreed to revitalise the committee to carry out intelligence assessment, joint development of security mosaic and direct all operations in Punjab.

It was decided to vigorously undertake coordinated actions across the board against all terrorist outfits and their facilitators. The forum also decided appropriate force application according to varying nature of targets, the ISPR said.

A source said the Joint Investigation Team apprised the JOCC about the progress on investigation into the Gulshan-i-Iqbal Park tragedy. The JIT said 69 deaths were officially confirmed and 354 other visitors, including women and children, got injured in the suicide attack.

The source said the committee was informed by the JIT that five DNA reports of suspects had been received and all have been preserved.

The JIT told the meeting that the photo of suspected suicide bomber, Salahuddin, as claimed by an offshoot of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), had been sent to the Nadra office, Islamabad, for verification about his identity.

About the large-scale operation against hardened criminals of various gangs, Rajanpur DPO Ghulam Mubashar Maikin told Dawn that Inspector General of Police Mushtaq Ahmad Sukhera visited the troubled area on Saturday. The sector commander, Pakistan Rangers, and regional police officers from Bahawalpur and D.G. Khan regions and DPOs of various other districts accompanied the IGP.

He said the visiting officials inspected the ongoing operations against gangsters of various groups in the front check-posts to boost the morale of police. The IGP directed the authorities concerned to ensure supply of quality food and logistic support to personnel of law-enforcement agencies fighting the outlaws in troubled areas of Kacha Moro and Kacha Jamal of Rojhan tehsil, he added.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2016