UNITED NATIONS, OCT 06 (DNA) – A top Pakistani diplomat has told the United Nations that Pakistan has “turned the tide” against terrorism through a series of determined actions that led to the destruction of terrorist infrastructures and bases in its tribal areas and along the Pak-Afghan border region.

“Terrorism in Pakistan is an unfortunate by product of the political and geo-strategic developments and foreign interventions in our neighborhood over the past 40 years,” Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the U.N., told the UN General Assembly’s Sixth Committee, which deals with legal matters.

Speaking in a debate on terrorism, Ambassador Lodhi highlighted measures such as a dedicated counter “terrorism force, reform of the criminal justice system, and an across the-board military campaign” the largest anti-terrorism operation anywhere in the world, to destroy terrorist infrastructures and bases in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region and Pakistani tribal areas.

Pakistan, she said, had lost over 27,000 citizens and law enforcement personnel to this scourge, with many more injured and maimed for life as well as economic losses of over US$120 billion. “But neither the human nor financial losses have diminished my country’s commitment to fight this menace. It has only reinforced our will to fight until the last terrorist is eliminated from our soil.”

Success of its counter-terrorism operations had resulted in the sharp reduction of terrorist activities across Pakistan over the past two years, she said. Still terrorism continues to posed a challenge, but its nature has changed.