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Peshawar School Attack: Pak Military Won't Back Off, Says Defence Minister

Pakistan Will Not Back Off Taliban Says Defence Minister
Pakistani army soldiers patrol in a vehicle in Peshawar on December 17, 2014, the day after an attack on an army school in the northern city. Pakistan has begun three days of mourning for the 132 schoolchildren and nine staff killed by the Taliban in the country's deadliest ever terror attack as the world united in a chorus of revulsion. The 141 people were killed when insurgents stormed an army-run school in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Tuesday and systematically went from room to room shooting children during an eight-hour killing spree. AFP PHOTO / Farooq NAEEM (Photo credit should read FAROOQ NAEEM/AFP/Getty Images)
FAROOQ NAEEM via Getty Images
Pakistani army soldiers patrol in a vehicle in Peshawar on December 17, 2014, the day after an attack on an army school in the northern city. Pakistan has begun three days of mourning for the 132 schoolchildren and nine staff killed by the Taliban in the country's deadliest ever terror attack as the world united in a chorus of revulsion. The 141 people were killed when insurgents stormed an army-run school in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Tuesday and systematically went from room to room shooting children during an eight-hour killing spree. AFP PHOTO / Farooq NAEEM (Photo credit should read FAROOQ NAEEM/AFP/Getty Images)

Islamabad: Pakistan has said it will not back off from military offensive against militants in North Waziristan in the aftermath of the terror attack at a school in Peshawar that left 141 people, mostly children, dead.

"We are undeterred, we will not back off," Defence Minister Khwaja Asif told CNN in a telephonic interview.

"Absolutely. Absolutely. There is absolutely no doubt about it," he said when asked if the Taliban and the jihadist group is the biggest threat to Pakistan.

"The Taliban are extremists, the terrorists. They are the biggest threat to the peace in this region, to peace in Pakistan, to the existence of Pakistan," said Asif. "We don't classify between different groups of Taliban that there are good Taliban and bad Taliban. They are all bad."

Pakistan, he asserted, has been on the frontline in the war against terrorism and this needs to be recognised by the world, in particular the Western countries.

"At this incident, even the children are dying on the front line in war against terror. These children are mostly the children of our service men, our officers, our soldiers." he said.

"It's not only that the service men who are dying in this war against terror, it's civilians, their children."

As many as 141 people, nearly all of them school children, were massacred yesterday when heavily armed Taliban suicide bombers stormed an army-run school in Peshawar, firing indiscriminately, leaving another 130 injured.

Asif asserted that the civilian government and the armed forces are on the same page as far as the war against terror is concerned. "There are absolutely no differences there."

Pakistan Army launched its offensive against Taliban and other terrorist organisations in North Waziristan in June, after it tried unsuccessfully for peace settlement with them.

"What happened is a manifestation of our commitment, that the way they have retaliated, that means that we are really hurting them. We are hurting them very, very, especially in North Waziristan, which was called the epicentre of terrorism in this whole region or perhaps in the world," he said.

"So this is evidence that Pakistan army is performing and performing very well. The fact that there's a blowback, the blowback and the horror in wartime Karachi and now today in Peshawar, the contempt speaks of the commitment of our armed forces in fighting terrorism," Asif said.

Responding to questions, he said the sympathy for the Taliban has declined in the past few years.

"Over the last 10 years, there used to be a lot of sympathy for Taliban or for these terrorists in Pakistan, like in 2004-05 or 2006. But over the last 3-4 years, this has diminished. Perhaps the sympathisers for Taliban today in Pakistan are past 5 per cent or 6 per cent or 7 per cent or 8 per cent," he said.

"But there was a time when they had huge support in Pakistan but today people realise that this is a menace and this is something which we have to eliminate. There is no sympathy for any Taliban," Asif added.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.