Taliban planning to penetrate into Punjab : Shahbaz Sharif

Islamabad, Jun.1 (ANI): Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said that the Taliban and other extremist groups are now planning to expand their writ into the province, as the security forces have successfully flushed them out from important locations in the Swat Valley.

"There is no doubt that one of their aims is to penetrate into Punjab as well as to stop operation in Swat," The Nation quoted Sharif, as saying.

Sharif said that the Army has been successful in rooting out the extremists from the valley, but it will take some time before peace and normalcy returns to the region.

"We are doing everything we can to stop their activities. Just as it did not come overnight, it will not go overnight. The whole nation is behind the concept of not allowing the insurgency to cripple our society," he said.

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also urged his countrymen to stand behind the security personnel fighting against the extremists.

"These insurgents might have been created by dictatorship, but it is democracy which must now deliver. If we don't do anything, we are at very great risk. Today they are in Swat and Malakand, tomorrow they are in the rest of the country," he said.

He asked the country's political parties to refrain from attacking each other, and start working together for the development of the nation.

"I firmly believe the issues are so grave that no single party can deal with this alone. We all have to deal with them together," Sharif said. (ANI)