The National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta) and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for having effective collaboration on prevention and awareness to combat “on-campus” extremism and terrorism.

The MoU was signed by Nacta National Coordinator Khaliq Dad Lak and HEC Executive Director retired Lt Gen Muhammad Asghar.

The scope of the MoU was to establish a sustained and effective collaboration and partnership in order to combat extremism and terrorism in the country through joint research and collaboration.

Both the organisations will consolidate existing research work in the areas of counter-extremism and counter-terrorism, which will help in promoting research culture in the public sector as well as improving the policy-making process.

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Another main objective of the MoU was to enhance awareness and prevention against extremist ideologies and mindset and to provide education on the topics of counter-extremism and counter-terrorism through participatory approach of the HEC and to increase awareness programmes.

Nacta will provide the basic themes and sub-topics while HEC will undertake the research through its affiliated universities. Both the parties will take measures to consolidate research work in the areas of counter-extremism and counter-terrorism.