Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has linked the Peshawar blast to the government’s failure to implement the National Action Plan (NAP) to counter terrorism across the country.
Speaking at a crowd in Chichawatni’s Rai Chowk in Sahiwal district gathered for the party’s long march, Bilawal cited the increasing incidences of terrorism in the country which he said was due to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government’s incompetence in the face of terrorist groups.
“Why the blood of the masses is cheap and terrorists are roaming free in the country, while no action was being taken against them,” Bilawal railed, as quoted in Dawn.
Following multiple terrorist attacks earlier this year, the opposition has time and again cited the National Action Plan as the answer to the increasing insecurity.
The NAP was established in 2015 by the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) government to clamp down on terrorism in the country and support anti-terrorism offensives in the area now known as the tribal districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari said that the consequences of the non-implementation of the NAP were emerging, folloowing a militant attack on security forces in Balochistan earlier this year.
Awami National Party (ANP) central general secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain reported earlier this year that terrorist groups were mobilizing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“Had the government implemented the National Action Plan in real sense the terrorists would have never dared to regroup,” he said, referring to attacks earlier this year.
During Friday prayers this week, a suicide bomber detonated himself at a Shia mosque in Peshawar, killing upwards of 60 people and injuring scores more.
