President
Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday while vowing not to let the terrorists
succeed called for collective global efforts to counter the growing
threat of terrorism. Addressing the international conference on “Global
Fight Against Terrorism,” President Zardari called for addressing the
rootcauses and of fighting the “mindset” by giving the people hope. The
President pointed that law enforcement measures help to contain the
problem temporarily and said long term solutions must address
political, economic and social aspects of the problem. “The way to
permanently defeat militancy is to remove the fear and instability on
which it thrives,” he said.
The President said the way to defeat terrorism was to provide jobs, education and health care for all.“The way to win this war is to give hope to our people in the future,” he said and warned that violence begets violence.He said Pakistan supports the idea of a counter narrative to win the battle for hearts and minds. It is only by defeating the terrorists on the ideological front that victory could be achieved.
President Zardari, who is in Tehran on a two-day visit for the conference said Pakistan has suffered US 67 billion dollars in material losses, besides a loss of 35000 people including 5000 law enforcement personnel.
“We cannot allow terrorists to prevail,” the President said and recalled that his wife - late Shaheed Benazir Bhutto was also a victim of terrorism.
He termed terrorism a mindset that promotes violence and intolerance.“It is the disease of the mind that preaches intolerance and violence.Terrorists violate both human and divine values by inflicting death and destruction on fellow human beings.They have no religion,” Zardari added.President Zardari said the government was fighting militancy. APP
