Ceasefire with TTP ended after December 09

Rawalpindi: Director-General Inter-Services Public Relations Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar on Wednesday shared that a ceasefire with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has been ended after December 09.

Addressing an important press conference in Rawalpindi to review the foremost developments in the security domain in the past year, the DG ISPR said that and the talks with the TTP previously were initiated at the request of the incumbent Afghan rulers.

– India is on a path of religious extremism – 

Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar said that Pakistan and India had agreed to a ceasefire in 2003 and after it came into force in February 2021, the peace returned to the border. “This has also brought improvement in the lives of the population living at both sides of the border,” he said.

“On the one hand India is on a path of religious extremism, which the whole word is aware of now, and on the other, it has endangered the entire region's security with its never ending series of defence procurement,” he maintained. 

– India turns Kashmir into place of worst humanitarian crisis –

Maj Gen Iftikhar said that India has turned Kashmir into a place of worst humanitarian crisis as the occupied territory has been under siege since August 2019. “The international community regarding its promise being made from the people of Kashmir regarding their right to self-determination on January 05, 1949.”

He said the fundamental purpose of this is to draw away the attention of the international community from the "systematic demographic changes" India is implementing in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Noting that India has martyred several Kashmiris before this around the LoC area, he said that the truth is that it has already tried to externalise Kashmir's indigenous freedom struggle.

But now, voices have begun to reverberate throughout India, occupied Kashmir and the entire world that Indian armed forces are targeting innocent Kashmiris in the name of counter terrorism and are trying to illegally crush their completely legitimate and indigenous freedom struggle, Maj Gen Iftikhar said.

He said in Kashmir the worst siege in human history has been going on since August 2019.

– The Russell Tribunal on Kashmir – 

Speaking of The Russell Tribunal on Kashmir, which was held in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Hercegovina, between December 17-19, 2021, he said that it's findings are "eye-opening".

He said that 15 international judges and experts took part in the tribunal, which focused on four areas, namely genocide, decolonisation, secular colonialism and war crimes against Kashmiris.

He went on to say that the participants made special mention of reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch which recorded instances of human rights violations by India and how Indian armed forces have been waging a military, political, economic, social, and cultural war against Kashmiris, and how they are violating the Geneva Convention and other international laws.

– Fencing at Pak-Afghan border to safeguard, not to divide people –

The DG ISPR explained that fencing at the Pakistan and Afghanistan border was aimed at safeguarding people rather than dividing them. He said that they are completely focused on erecting a fence on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and will complete it as soon as possible.

“The work under the western border management regime will be completed in the stipulated period. Ninety four per cent work on the erection of fence along Pak-Afghan border has been completed whilst on Pak-Iran border, seventy one per cent work on the fencing has been achieved.”

He further said the border management system with Afghanistan will be made more effective with the passage of time. He said the blood of our martyrs is included in the erection of this fence.  He said this is a fence of peace and it will be completed and stay intact.

Situation at western border in 2021 'remained challenging'

Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar said that at the western border, the security situation remained challenging in 2021. “The western border management, especially the Pak-Afghan international border, has local, operational and strategic dynamics and are taken up with relevant authorities and addressed from time to time,” he added. 

“In 2021, an important operation was conducted in North Waziristan which led to the complete restoration of the state's writ at the Pak-Afghan border,” he said. He said that this is an area where tough weather conditions persist and inaccessible locations enabled the terrorists to move about easily on both sides of the border.

The DG ISPR said 67 new wings of FC Balochistan and FC Khyberpakhunkhwa were established in the year 2021 to further strengthen the border security. He said the process has also been started to establish six more wings.

No Deal with Nawaz Sharif; DG ISPR terms all rumors as baseless

DG ISPR Major General Babar Iftikhar said that no deal was being reached with PMLN quid and former premier Nawaz Sharif, terming all rumours as fabricated and baseless.

He also said that speculations regarding a deal with Nawaz Sharif are baseless. “If anyone asks you about a deal then you should ask the name of the person who is cracking a deal with them,” he added.

Major General Babar Iftikhar also maintained that there is no trouble afoot when it comes to civil-military relations and asked the media to keep the establishment out of it. “It is better to minimize such discussions as the country has far important issues like health and education,” he said.