ISLAMABAD, February 15: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday said merging Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will help putting an end to the growing menace of terrorism.
He was speaking at a press conference following the suicide attacks in Fata’s Mohmand Agency as well as Peshawar earlier in the day, that left three dead in total.
“If we want to reap the benefits from Operation Zarb-i-Azb and National Action Plan, it is essential to merge Fata [with KP],” Imran said, adding that the issues pertaining to Fata need to resolved at the earliest.
“The war in the last 10 years has left tribal areas in ruins. The region is massively underdeveloped and needs to be integrated in the mainstream,” the PTI chief added.
As soon as that is done “terrorism from Fata, that is infiltrating into settled areas, can be curbed,” Imran reiterated.
The PTI chairman said that he met Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, also present during the press conference, to discuss a course of action to speed up the merger process.
“Further delay in the merger process would allow terrorism to take roots in the vacuum that currently exists in the region,” Imran said, adding that the repercussions of slow progress will not only be felt in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but also the rest of the country.
Mohmand is one of Pakistan’s seven semi-autonomous tribal districts near the Afghan border, rife with homegrown insurgents and foreign militants.
Despite the heavy military presence on both sides of the border, cross-border movements of militants (in both ways) has been a major area of concern.
According to data from the South Asia Terrorism Portal, 457 civilians and 182 members of the security forces were killed in Pakistan from January 1 to September 11, putting 2016 on course for fewer casualties than 2015.-Agencies
