Islamabad, May 30 (PTI) The Pakistan Army on Thursday vowed to defeat what it termed “digital terrorism”, which aims to induce “despondency” in the country by pitching national institutions against each other through fake news and propaganda.
The army also called for bringing to justice the planners, perpetrators, abettors, and facilitators of last year’s May 9 riots that occurred following the arrest of former prime minister Imran Khan in an alleged corruption case.
In a statement issued after the 83rd Formation Commanders Conference at GHQ, Rawalpindi chaired by Army chief General Asim Munir, the top military brass also expressed serious concerns over terrorism being orchestrated using Afghan soil.
“The forum underscored that politically motivated and vested digital terrorism, unleashed by conspirators duly abetted by their foreign cohorts, against state institutions is clearly meant to try to induce despondency in the Pakistani nation, to sow discord among national institutions, especially the Armed Forces, and the people of Pakistan by peddling blatant lies, fake news, and propaganda,” it stated.
“However, the nation is fully cognisant of their ugly and ulterior motives and surely the designs of these nefarious forces will be comprehensively defeated,” it added.
The meeting – attended by Corps Commanders, Principal Staff Officers, and all Formation Commanders of the Pakistan Army – reiterated that those involved in the May 9 violence of the last year would not be spared.
“The forum noted that planners, perpetrators, abettors, and facilitators of 9th May need to be brought to justice for the collective good of the country and that without the swift and transparent dispensation of justice to the culprits and establishing the rule of law, stability in the country will ever remain hostage to the machinations of such elements,” the army said.
The violence followed after supporters of Khan took to the streets when he was arrested in a case of alleged corruption.
The army leadership expressed its resolve to continue to fully support the government’s initiatives for sustainable economic growth and curbing illegal activities, including smuggling, hoarding, electricity theft and implementation of One Document Regime for the visiting Afghan nationals.
It supported the dignified repatriation of illegal foreigners, and safeguarding of the national database.
The forum was briefed on the dynamics of the geo-strategic environment, emerging challenges to national security, and the army’s strategy to counter multi-domain threats. It was also briefed on technological innovations to modernise the army and optimise logistic support to field formations, in line with the fast-evolving operational environment.
The meeting expressed serious concerns over continued cross-border violations from Afghanistan and terrorism being orchestrated using Afghan soil, noting that Pakistan’s adversaries were using Afghanistan to target the security forces and innocent civilians inside Pakistan.
It acknowledged the priceless sacrifices of the people of Newly Merged Districts (NMDs) in the war against terrorism and underscored the importance of uplifting the NMDs to decisively defeat terrorism.
The meeting underlined the need for socio-economic development in Balochistan to counter externally propagated narratives of exclusion, exploited by foreign-sponsored proxies to lead Balochistan’s youth away from peace and progress.
The forum expressed complete solidarity with the Kashmiri people in their just struggle for the inalienable right to self-determination as enshrined in UN resolutions, it said.
It also expressed complete solidarity with the people of Palestine and condemned serious human rights violations and war crimes being perpetrated in Gaza, supporting the International Court of Justice’s decision to stop the Rafah Operation and all other operations within the Gaza Strip. PTI SH ZH AKJ ZH ZH
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.