Charsadda attack was Zarb-e-Azb blowback: PM

Nawaz Sharif was giving a talk on “Regions in Transformation – South Asia” at the Congress Centre in Davos, where he arrived on Tuesday to represent Pakistan at the 46th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF). The PM said that Pakistan’s resolve to fight against terror became stronger despite the severe sufferings.

The prime minister said that the decision to launch military operation Zarb-e-Azb was taken after careful consideration, it was calculated and 180,000 troops were committed to it. The men and women deployed yielded very good results, he added.

“When I took over, terrorists were creating havoc all over the country”. “We also have China Pakistan economic corridor”.

Unidentified gunmen entered Bacha Khan University in Khyber Pakhtunkha’s Charsadda town on Wednesday and opened fire on students and faculty members as they gathered inside the university premises for a poetry recital to commemorate the death anniversary of the activist and leader whom the school is named after. “It started reducing and terrorists are now on run and are picking up soft targets like the one yesterday”, Sharif said.

“The Prime Minister also consulted Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif and it was agreed that every effort would be made to find out the perpetrators of this act”, the statement by the Spokesperson said. The two leaders reviewed the whole gamut of bilateral ties between the two countries, besides discussing the situation in the region.

He termed the CPEC a game changer for the entire region and said the future of the world was in this region.

Nawaz said foreign and domestic investment was on the rise with the decline in terrorist incidents.

US Secretary of State, John Kerry, Finance Minister, Ishaq Dar and Special Assistant to Prime Minister, Tariq Fatemi attended the meeting.

“Strongly condemn the terror attack at Bacha Khan University in Pakistan”.

“We have linked (talks with action by Pakistan)”, foreign office spokesperson Vikas Swarup had said on January 14, in a balancing act where he also stressed that the broader dialogue remained intact.