LONDON: Army chief General Raheel Sharif on Friday said that Pakistan was passing through difficult times, and that there was no turning back from an all-out operation against terrorism.
“Pakistan is passing through difficult times and, in my opinion, these are defining moments...But we never thought that they (the terrorists) would go down to this limit and attack this soft target... and massacre the children the way they have done.
“These horrific incidents and barbaric actions by the terrorists have shown to the entire world and to our nation what type of people they are. But there is no turning back now,” he told a crowd at the Pakistani High Commission in London.
“The operation is going very well,” he added.
Gen Sharif is on a three-day official visit to the United Kingdom where he is expected to meet senior British political and military leadership.
Speaking earlier today at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the army chief said that significant progress was being achieved in Operation Zarb-e-Azb.
He said that the National Action Plan had been devised to comprehensively address rising extremism and terrorism in the long-term. He said that terrorists of all kinds were being targeted in the military operation, with “no favourites”.
Gen Sharif said that relations with Afghanistan were improving, and that Pakistan was continuing to work for stability in the region.
The army chief added that the government was doing its best for complete implementation of the National Action Plan.
Speaking on Kashmir, he said that the issue has to be resolved to attain long-term peace and stability in the region.
“Pakistan wants peace, but with dignity and honour,” DG ISPR Lt-Gen Asim Bajwa quoted the army chief as saying.
“[The] World needs to understand our environment. Our cooperation with UK in security, social sector [is] growing. [This] should help in dignified resettlement of [temporarily displaced persons],” he was quoted as saying.
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