Sanaullah assures nation steps being taken to counter terrorism.

ISLAMABAD -- Amid an uptick in terrorist activity in the country, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah on Wednesday assured the nation that the government was taking steps to counter terrorism.

Pakistan has seen a rise in terrorist attacks across the country, believed to have been planned and directed by the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leaders based in Afghanistan.

The TTP, which has ideological linkages with the Afghan Taliban, executed around more than 100 attacks last year, most of which happened after August when the group's peace talks with the Pakistan government began to falter. The ceasefire was formally ended on Nov 28 by the TTP.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad today, Sanaullah said the state's efforts against terrorism could not be publicised as it would compromise its success.

'But this should not be taken to mean that nothing is being done,' the minister said, adding that tremendous efforts against terrorism were underway and the nation should rest assured about the matter.

Commenting on the recent meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC), he said that the forum had resolved to adopt a 'zero tolerance' policy against terrorism with 'no mixed messages and no differentiation between good or bad terrorists'.

'Whoever is involved in terrorism is a terrorist,' he asserted.

Sanaullah further said that authorities would take pre-emptive action against terrorist schemes and those involved would be apprehended in order to prevent such incidents from occurring in the first place.

He said that the NSC had also decided that the provincial counterterrorism departments (CTDs) would be provided training by the federal government in order to make them more effective.

The minister said that the forum had also discussed setting up of a national body for coordinating with the various CTDs in an effort to make them more efficient.

At the same time, Sanaullah said that efforts were underway to bring the outlawed TTP to the negotiation table but the...