Friday, June 12, 2009

BEIJING: Pakistan has given a firm assurance to the Chinese leadership that it was committed to eliminating extremism, terrorism and separatism, and would not allow any terrorist outfit to operate from its soil, Interior Minister Rahman Malik said.Giving impressions on completion of the first phase of his June 9-12 official visit to China, he said there were some “traces” of the terrorist outfit of East Turkmenistan Independence Movement (ETIM) found in the Fata area and Pakistan had taken firm action against it. He said it was the modus operandi of the terrorist outfits that they worked in syndicates but Pakistan would not allow these outlaws to inflict any harm to our most trusted friend.“We have signed agreements worth $300 million to acquire state-of-the-art equipment to combat terrorism,” he said adding that the first consignment of the most-needed equipment would be reaching Pakistan within three weeks.The equipment Pakistan needs includes most modern mobile scanners that can detect hidden explosives and drugs. “Initially, we would start employing this equipment in the metropolitan cities like Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi and then gradually we plan to cover the entire country,” he said.