ISLAMABAD, Feb 01 (DNA): Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday stated that terrorists will not succeed in their attempts to deprive children of getting education and they will be defeated at all cost.The Prime Minister stated this while addressing a high-level meeting in Islamabad.Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Army Chief General Raheel Sharif, DG ISI Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar, National Security Advisor Nasir Janjua and other top officials were present in the meeting.

The meeting reviewed country’s prevailing security situation, progress in Bacha Khan University attack probe and ongoing operations against terrorists.

Addressing the participants, Nawaz Shairf said that successful implementation on clauses of the National Action Plan (NAP) is vital to eradicate the menace of terrorism.

Terrorists will be eliminated from every nook and corner of the country, he added. Nawaz Sharif said: “Our children will defeat those who are trying to scare them from attending the schools.”

These remarks came after the private and government schools closed in Punjab following an alert over possible militant attacks.

The warning came a week after a breakaway Taliban faction attacked Bacha Khan University in Charsadda and killed 21 people, mostly students.

The university reopened briefly on last Monday but then closed indefinitely to give students more time to recover from the incident.

The government memo says there is intelligence report that 13 terrorists recently entered the country from neighboring Afghanistan and were planning suicide attacks on schools across Pakistan.

Schools were also closed in southwestern Balochistan province for the usual winter break there. In the northwest and the south, schools remained open and it was not immediately clear if there where additional concerns that prompted the closures in Punjab.

The Charsadda attack revived memories of the horrific December 2014 Taliban attack on an army run school in the nearby city of Peshawar that killed 150 people, 144 of them children.

The Bacha Khan University has also demanded a series of new security measures, including the extension of a perimeter fence, having a retired military officer take charge of the campus and getting gun licenses for teachers.

All four attackers who took part in the Charsadda assault were killed. Over the weekend, authorities announced the arrest of five others suspected of involvement in that attack.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said it had summoned on Monday a senior Afghan diplomat, Syed Abdul Nasir Yousafi, to convey Islamabad’s concern “regarding the use of Afghan soil by certain terrorist elements” involved in the Charsadda attack.

The Afghan diplomat was told that Pakistan’s investigation has showed that handlers of the four attackers who stormed the Bacha Khan University “were operating from Afghan territory.”
Kabul was also asked to assist in bringing those individuals to justice.

There was no immediate response from Kabul officials. DNA