RAWALPINDI: Director General Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar on Monday said that terrorist incidents in Pakistan slumped by 45 percent in 2020 in comparison with 2019.

“Security situation has much improved over the years. Karachi jumped to 103 rank in terrorist activities index in 2020, from 6 in 2013,” Babar Iftikhar said while addressing a press conference in Rawalpindi to present review on security and other situations of the country.

Along security challenges, Pakistan faced challenges of coronavirus and locust as well in 2020, he maintained. He said as a result of successful operations against terrorism, security situation had greatly improved.

The DG ISPR said under operation Ruddul Fassad (RuF), six major operations and 34,004 intelligence based operations (IBOs) were carried out in Punjab/ GB, five major operations and 89, 827 IBOs in KP, zero major operation and 170,079 IBOs in Sindh and 39 major operations and 77,263 IBOs were conducted in Balochistan.

He said India conducted 3,097 ceasefire violations in 2020. While, fake NGOs supported by India carried out false propaganda against Pakistan, he added.

Iftikhar Babar said Pakistan’s armed forces thwarted an Indian attempt of aggression in 2019 and they had always presented evidence against Indian propaganda.

“We have always pointed out truth-based facts on internal and external threats,” he said adding that if India’s disinformation campaign was dissected then you would come to know that Pakistan had fought a responsible war against terrorism in the last two decades.

Today, no organized terrorist infrastructure existed in Pakistan as more than 18,000 terrorists had been eliminated, he said.

To a query, he said that there was no use of responding to the allegations of politicians.

To another query, the DG ISPR said that it was beyond his understanding that why Jamiat Ulema e Islam-F chief Maulana Fazl ur Rehman wanted to march towards Rawalpindi. However, he said, they would offer him water and tea if they came.

The security forces require tremendous amount of resources for protection in Balochistan as 199 development projects were going on in the province, he said.