The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has blocked over 900 web addresses and ten websites of banned organisations under the National Action Plan (NAP), reported Radio Pakistan on Monday.

The Ministry of Interior and law enforcement agencies have also registered 17,562 cases and arrested over 19,000 people to counter hate speech, extremist literature and misuse of loudspeakers.

Renewed focus on NAP?

Operation Radd-ul-Fasad is intended to be a continuation of NAP, according to the ISPR notification which announced the operation.

Widely criticised for its apparently half-hearted implementation, NAP had been formulated after the devastating attack on Army Public School Peshawar in December 2014.

As part of the plan, military courts were established to fast-track terrorism cases. Intelligence-based operations across the country were initiated to disrupt and destroy terror networks in urban and rural areas. The plan had also laid an emphasis on curtailing terror financing.

NAP had also promised to take action against seminaries involved in militancy, but the government had dithered on bringing them under control, apparently for fear of backlash from religious parties as well as militants.

The plan further envisaged countering hate speech and extremist material through the powers vested in the provincial police and other authorities. Pemra and other regulatory authorities were tasked with checking and banning glorification of terrorism and militant groups through print and electronic media. The drafting of the Electronic Media Code of Conduct was also a positive step.

The provinces were further instructed under NAP to raise a counter-terrorism force under a dedicated command structure.