Screengrab of Barrister Saif’s press conference
Special Assistant to the C.M. on Information Mohammad Ali Saif on Tuesday claimed the attack on a team of polio vaccinators in Tank was intended to disrupt ongoing “peace talks” with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Earlier, two police personnel were shot dead while serving as security for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s police vaccination drive. In a statement, police said unidentified gunmen had opened fire on the policemen and fled the scene on a motorcycle. None of the vaccinators accompanying the policemen had been hurt, they added.
Saif told a press conference that “anti-TTP” groups did not want “peace talks” between the banned group and the government to succeed. “Incidents of extortion and attacks on police are being done to make the dialogue fail,” he claimed.
Rebutting reports of a resurgence of armed militants of TTP in remote areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Saif said that even if thousands of armed men entered the province from Afghanistan, the government had the will and resources to resist them. “We have tanks, guns and fighter jets … a few thousand Kalashnikovs cannot stop the government. There were only 40 to 50 people who came to Swat with ordinary rifles,” he said of reports that militants had established a checkpost in Swat. He said the attackers had left Swat following an operation to dislodge them, adding that police had been deployed on the affected areas.
“The situation only remained tense for two to three days … the issue has been resolved,” he claimed, adding there was “no truth” to the rumors that terrorists were regrouping in the province.