Islamabad, Jan 25: Amid mounting international pressure, Pakistan on Sunday pledged further action to combat militants groups operating inside its territory.
However, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif admitted progress had often been slow, speaking just days after a deadly attack by heavily armed gunmen on a university campus killed 21 people.
The assault on the Bacha Khan University campus in Charsadda bore a chilling resemblance to the December 2014 Peshawar school assault in which more than 150 people, mostly children, were killed, prompting the government to launch a National Action Plan (NAP) cracking down on extremism.
Sharif said Sunday Pakistan would continue the fight against militants. “We will fulfil this responsibility,” he told reporters in London.
“In certain areas of NAP the progress is slow, but in many other areas work has been started,” Sharif added.
The NAP saw the creation of military courts and the resumption of executions after a six-year moratorium, and the initiatives were credited with making 2015 the least deadly in terms of militant attacks since the formation of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistani (TTP) in 2007.
The Pakistan military also intensified an ongoing campaign against extremism following the 2014 assault.
