Army to extend full support for PSL final in Lahore, says COAS

LAHORE: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa Tuesday said that incidents like the Lahore blast can neither lower our national resolve nor affect our ongoing efforts against terrorism, according to an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement.

General Bajwa said this while on a visit to Lahore, where he chaired a security meeting at the Corps Headquarters.

The COAS was briefed on the Lahore suicide bombing near Punjab Assembly yesterday by intelligence agencies and Lieutenant General Sadiq Ali, Commander Lahore Corps, the ISPR said.

General Bajwa vowed that terrorists of all hue and colour, their masters, financiers, planners and abettors will be hunted across the country, held accountable and responded to. “Our gains over the years cannot be reversed,” he said.

The army chief appreciated efforts of intelligence agencies in tracing culprits of the blast, which have resulted in important arrests overnight, including few Afghans, the ISPR said. He also directed to expedite efforts to unearth the complete network.

Talking about the blast’s links to sabotaging the forthcoming PSL final in Lahore, the COAS said the Army will extend full support to everyone concerned for holding the event as scheduled.

General Bajwa later visited bereaved family of DIG Ahmed Mobin, who was among martyrs of Monday's blast, and offered Fatiha there. Talking to his mother, he said that the sacrifice of his brave son and those by the nation shall not go in vain.

“We have to defeat this inhuman brutal mindset, and as a nation, we shall,” said the army chief.

He also expressed his grief and extended condolences to other bereaved families of blast victims and visited the injured at Services Hospital.