No safe havens of terrorists in Pakistan, DG ISPR

Naimat Khan

KARACHI: Director General Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), Major General Asif Ghafoor, has said there are no safe heavens of terrorists in Pakistan.

“There are no safe havens of terrorists in Pakistan but there are terrorists in the country,” he said, adding security forces are targeted for making a country weak, he said this while addressing to students of University of Karachi here on Thursday.

He said that religion is a matter between the man and his God.

“I don’t need to give proofs to someone that I’m Muslim because it’s a matter between me and my All Mighty Allah. I don’t need to raise slogan to be identified as Muslim. I need to prove it through my action,” “I’m lucky to have to Karachi University. Here it seems that I’m in a women university due to high ratio of girl students,” he said.

While describing fundamentalism, the Army spokesman said it had different kinds. “There are fundamentalists in west and India as well. Every fundamentalist is not a terrorist and likewise, every terrorist is not a fundamentalist,” he said.

“I am also a fundamentalist but not every fundamentalist is a terrorist” he said.

He said that if he is someone who wanted everyone to view the world through his perspective, he would not be called a fundamentalist, but an extremist. “If I force others to agree to my ideologies, then I’d be called as the one who is prone to violence or terrorism.”

Pakistan, he stressed, is one of the most beautiful creations of the Almighty and it is valued the most geographically as well. “When someone wants destruction of a country, then it targets its security forces first.”

“It was said that Soviet Union’s arrival in Afghanistan posed a threat to Islam,” Major General Asif Ghafoor said. “The Soviet [Union] was ousted with the assistance of the US.”

Major General Asif Ghafoor stated that Afghanis came to Pakistan when United States invaded Afghanistan following 9/11. “Operation Zarb-e-Azb was completed successfully and terrorists were killed step-by-step,” he said.