RAWALPINDI: Undeter­red by a recent terrorist attack carried out by the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on soldiers performing census duty, Chief of the Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa declared on Monday that the sixth population and housing census would be completed at all cost.

Seven people — four army soldiers, an employee of the air force and two other passers-by — lost their lives and 18 others were injured in the suicide bomb attack on a census team in Lahore on April 5.

According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the army chief visited the Army Census Support Centre (ACSC) established at the headquarters of the army air defence command in Rawalpindi.

Lt Gen Zahid Latif Mirza, the Chairman of the ACSC and Army Air Defence Commander, received the COAS at the centre, where he was given a detailed briefing on the support being given by the armed forces to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

The army chief was also briefed on the progress of the census made so far. He said that a smooth conduct of the census was the collective success of the army and the government.

Appreciating the efforts of the census support centre and all those involved in the exercise, the COAS said that the army considered it a national commitment to positively contribute towards the successful accom­plishment of the census.

“[The] census will be completed at all cost,” he said.

About the Lahore terrorist attack, the army chief paid tribute to the soldiers and civil enumerators who laid down their lives while performing the census duty.

With 118,000 enumerators from different departments and 175,000 army personnel, the country’s largest population census was launched on March 15 in 63 districts of the country after a delay of 19 years.

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2017