Pakistan all set for anti-terror campaign in Sharif's Punjab province

Islamabad: Pakistani authorities are set to launch an anti-terror campaign in the Punjab province- a stronghold of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Officials said the operation would be aiming at purging the “no-go areas” allegedly established by banned outfits at Punjab province’s border areas.

Paramilitary Rangers will be engaged for a limited role to assist the law-enforcing agencies at the provincial boundaries shared with Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh.

The Frontier Corps and Rangers will coordinate the efforts against anti-state elements at the borderlines, government officials said.

The members of outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Al-Qaeda and criminal gangs have created 'no-go areas' at the border of Punjab, virtually converting them into safe havens.

“Frontier Corps has already launched intelligence-based “chase operations” to hunt the activists of the banned outfits in some areas of Balochistan, that connects the volatile province with the Punjab," said an official

“The areas in which the operations took place include Zamurdan, Sori, Rekho, Geyandari and Jathro,” he added.

The business of kidnapping is on the rise. The banned organizations operating from the no-go areas are mostly involved in such unscrupulous activities and have major stakes in it. They mostly operate in the aforementioned border areas.

In two intelligence-based chase operations in the first week of this month, Frontier Corps killed four banned outfits’ members at the Punjab border, who had kidnapped employees of the Balochistan government.

The security forces freed the kidnapped employees who the fleeing abductors had left behind while crossing into the Punjab.

The activities of TTP and Al-Qaeda splinters are growing in the Punjab border areas.

A majority of the men hailing from such banned outfits take to activities like money extortion and abductions. Similarly, the Punjab border along Khyber, Pakhtunkhwa at Mianwali have become a hotbed for such activities.

In some cases, the kidnappers smuggle their abductees to Afghanistan via Punjab-Balochistan and Mianwali-Khyber Pakhtunkhwa border, the official added.

A thorough investigation into the case has stated that these men take refuge in the ‘ no-go’ areas in order to save themselves from getting caught for certain period of time. They continue with their illegitimate activities from those specific areas.

At least, eight people of such banned outfits have been killed by the security forces while they were entering Balochistan in the recent past, sources said.

More than 12 activists of the TTP had been killed in the South Punjab in intelligence-based operations with the assistance of Counter-Terrorism Department of Punjab, the sources added.