The Pakistan government has convened an in-camera meeting of a high-level parliamentary security panel on Tuesday where the top military leadership would brief lawmakers on the prevailing situation, amid a surge in the terror attacks in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has asked National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq to convene the security meeting at Parliament House on Tuesday at 1:30 pm, it emerged on Monday.
The military leadership will provide a comprehensive briefing to the Parliamentary Committee on National Security on the prevailing security situation, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
The development comes in the wake of a series of deadly terror attacks in the two provinces, which share a border with neighbouring Afghanistan. Citing a source in the National Assembly, Dawn newspaper reported that since no parliamentary committee on security was formed, therefore, members of the Standing Committees on Defence and Foreign Affairs from the National Assembly, federal cabinet members, chief ministers of the four provinces and leaders of all parliamentary parties or their representatives will attend the closed-door session. Prime Minister Sharif and Army Chief Gen Asim Munir will join the briefing.
Meanwhile, the government is said to be planning a massive operation against the BLA and other terror groups, involved in growing terror attacks in the province, the paper reported. One of the Prime Minister’s aides, Rana Ahsan Afzal, said the government will soon convene a Multi-Party Conference (MPC) to discuss the security situation. He also revealed plans to carry out a massive operation against terrorists in Balochistan but did not offer any details. The security situation seems volatile in the two provinces of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan where terrorists belonging to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) have repeatedly attacked the security personnel and civilians.
On Sunday, five people, including three security personnel, were killed and 30 others injured when a paramilitary convoy was attacked by BLA militants in Noshki district of Balochistan. Last week, the BLA militants ambushed a train carrying 440 passengers in the same province and killed 21 passengers and four paramilitary soldiers. The army eliminated all 33 terrorists and rescued passengers.
On Sunday, three security personnel were killed in five separate terrorist attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces accounted for over 96 per cent of terrorist attacks and deaths in Pakistan in 2024. The militants also this month attacked Bannu Cantonment in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where 16 terrorists were killed and five soldiers died. Also, renowned cleric Maulana Hamidul Haq Haqqani was killed with five other people in a suicide attack at his seminary in Nowshera district of KP.
Pakistan has repeatedly blamed Afghanistan for the surge in terrorist attacks, allegations that Kabul has denied. As if to put pressure on the Afghan government, Pakistan set March 31 as the deadline for Afghan Citizen Card (ACC) holders to leave the country or face deportation. In a related development, Pakistan turned down a request by the Afghan Taliban to grant an extension in the stay of Afghan refugees, reported The Express Tribune.
Official sources told The Express Tribune on Sunday that the Pakistani decision was final and there would be no relaxation. Sources said relevant authorities and all four provinces have been given instructions to make appropriate arrangements for the return of Afghan refugees.
Radical Islamist party intensifies action against Ahmadi community
Lahore: A radical Islamist party in Pakistan has intensified its action against the minority Ahmadi community, forcibly stopping its members from offering special Friday prayers in several cities of Punjab and also torturing them, a community organisation said on Monday. Last Friday, the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) members surrounded the worship places of Ahmadis in Faisalabad, Sargodha, Layyah, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Bahawalpur and Okara districts of Punjab and threatened the Ahmadi worshippers to stop offering Friday prayers, Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya Pakistan (JAP) said. They chanted slogans against Ahmadis, calling them infidels and also called for the sealing of their worship places. They said Ahmadis cannot offer Friday prayers as it is a “Muslim ritual”. Pakistan’s Parliament in 1974 declared the Ahmadi community as non-Muslims. A decade later, they were banned from calling themselves Muslims. They are banned from preaching and from travelling to Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage.
In Faisalabad, the TLP activists stormed into the Ahmadi worship place and allegedly tortured those present there to offer Friday prayers, the JAP said. As police reached all these places, the TLP members said they would not return till police promised to seal Ahmadi places of worship and registration of cases against them for offering Friday prayers.
The police, however, managed to control the situation and assured the TLP protesters that they would seal the worship places. On police assurance, the protesters dispersed.
Earlier, police booked over 60 Ahmadis and arrested 45 for offering Friday prayers in Karachi and Daska cities. JAP spokesperson Aamir Mahmood said the extremist religious groups in Pakistan, particularly in Punjab, have been besieging Ahmadi places of worship and inciting violence to prevent Ahmadis from offering Friday prayers. He strongly condemned the TLP action aimed at sealing Ahmadi places of worship and preventing Ahmadis from practising their faith.
“According to Article 20 of Pakistan’s Constitution, every citizen has the right to practice and follow their faith freely. Preventing peaceful Ahmadis from worshipping not only violates fundamental human rights but also tarnishes Pakistan’s global reputation,” he said.
He warned that the growing aggression of extremist groups and their demands for baseless legal action against Ahmadis are putting their lives in danger.
The spokesperson called on the authorities concerned to reject the extremist ideology of the extremist groups of agitators and to uphold the fundamental human rights of Pakistani Ahmadis.
In Pakistan, religious extremists are ramping up their hateful campaigns against Ahmadis, leading to increasing harassment at workplaces, job dismissals, and public calls for boycotting Ahmadi shopkeepers.
Around 10 million out of the 220 million population are non-Muslims in Pakistan.
According to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics in 2021, there are 96.47 per cent Muslims, followed by 2.14 per cent Hindus, 1.27 per cent Christians, 0.09 per cent Ahmadi Muslims and 0.02 per cent others.
