QUETTA: Council of Islamic Ideology Chairman and MNA Maulana Mohammad Khan Shirani has said the government should take strict action against militants without any discrimination.

“We can get rid of terrorism through action against both the bad and good militants. We would have to do away with the policy of good and bad militants for the cause of peace,” he said while addressing public meetings in Quetta, Toba Achakzai and Toba Kakari on Wednesday.

Maulana Shirani said terrorism had claimed the lives of thousands of people in the country over the past few years.

“Innocent people were killed in a suicide attack on the Civil Hospital in Quetta and bodies of lawyers were sent to their native areas from Zhob to Gwadar,” he said.

He stressed the need for promoting a culture of harmony and tolerance, especially religious harmony, to make society peaceful. “Extremism and terrorism have damaged peace and harmony in the country and it is the need of the hour to control them on a war footing.”

Maulana Shirani urged the government to open the Pak-Afghan Friendship Gate at Chaman and said that thousands of people were facing hardship because of the closure of the border.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2016