PTI leader Fawad lashes out at coalition govt for 52 pc rise in terror attacks since regime change

Islamabad [Pakistan], December 2 (ANI): Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhary on Thursday lashed out at the coalition government of Shehbaz Sharif and claimed that there has been a 52 per cent rise in terror attacks since the regime changed.
Fawad said that terrorism incidents in the country had increased by 52 per cent since “Operation Regime Change”, a euphemism his party uses to refer to the ouster of its government through a no-trust vote in April, reported Dawn.
Expressing grief over the loss of precious lives in Wednesday’s suicide attack near Quetta, he said the operation regime change had been carried out to topple “a well-performing PTI government” and replace it with an “imported inept government”.
Incidentally, the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) this week called off the ceasefire with the government, posing a serious challenge to its security.
TTP ended the ceasefire agreed with the government in June and ordered fighters to stage attacks across the country.
“As military operations are ongoing against mujahideen in different areas […] so it is imperative for you to carry out attacks wherever you can in the entire country,” the banned outfit said in a statement.
The Islamic group’s violent campaign had been picking up pace in recent months, with the most significant attack coming in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP) Lakki Marwat district last month, in which at least six policemen were killed.
According to Dawn, the Quetta attack signals the new beginning of a violent post-ceasefire campaign by the TTP, unless the security establishment and political leadership start to nip this evil in the bud.
Within 48 hours of the announcement, the group carried out a suicide attack in Quetta.
The PTI leader claimed that during the tenure of the current government, 270 people, including security personnel, had lost their lives in terrorism-related incidents and hundreds of others had suffered injuries, reported Dawn.
He said the main reason for the rise in acts of terrorism was the non-existence of a “serious and competent” government in Islamabad.
He said the current government had ruined the “fast thriving economy” besides destroying the governance altogether.
He said the Afghan policy was also in a shambles as no one was paying attention to counter-terrorism, fearing they might lose the hard-earned achievements after 2018, reported Dawn.
The TTP, a Pakistani offshoot and close ally of the Afghan Taliban, is listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States and the United Nations.
According to UN estimates, it has between 4,000 to 6,500 fighters in Afghanistan. Its spread is beyond the tribal belt, to Pakistani cities.
Armed terrorists on November 16 ambushed a police patrol in KP, killing all six policemen. Local officials told Al Jazeera the incident took place when the police vehicle was fired upon in the city of Lakki Marwat, about 200 km from the provincial capital of Peshawar.
The failure of the federal and provincial governments to curb militancy has unsettled the people’s lives. Protests of a unique kind have gained ground with people who want peace from TTP’s depredations.
TTP fighters were largely routed into neighbouring Afghanistan, but Islamabad claims the Taliban in Kabul are now giving the TTP a foothold to stage assaults across the border. (ANI)