ISLAMABAD: National Security Adviser (NSA) Lt Gen (retd) Nasir Khan Janjua on Monday said the issue of bringing those attached with extremist organisations into the mainstream was being discussed since long.
He was replying to The News’ questions with regard to remarks by Lt Gen (retd) Amjad Shoaib about putting in cold storage the plan to de-radicalise militants, including the JuD activists.
Lt Gen (retd) Nasir Khan Janjua said: “It is true that there has been this suggestion of bringing activists attached with proscribed organisations into the mainstream national life by de-radicalising them, giving them different trainings including vocational trainings and giving them jobs, etc.”
General Janjua said: “We forget one basic thing. Law and order is a provincial subject. After becoming in-charge of National Action Programme (NAP), I have sent these recommendations to provinces for implementation.” He said that these suggestions have not been put in the cold storage and work is in progress on this count.
He pressed the point that these were very sensitive matters and must be dealt with very much care, patience and under proper planning. “These are our own people and must make all efforts to bring them back to the mainstream social life,” said the NSA of Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Chief of the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta) Ihsan Ghani, on being approached by The News, said that no such suggestion of mainstreaming activists of proscribed organisations or giving them jobs in law enforcement agencies as stated by Lt Gen (retd) Amjad Shoaib was in his knowledge. “I haven’t seen anything like this during my stay in Nacta,” Ghani said.
Earlier, senior defence analyst Lt Gen (retd) Amjad Shoaib criticised Nacta for putting in the cold storage a plan recommended by the DG ISI in April 2016 to de-radicalise hardcore activists of Jamat-ul-Dawa (JuD) and recruit them in Rangers and FC.
While talking to senior journalist Arif Nizami in a talkshow on October 25, Lt Gen Amjad Shoaib said that DG ISI had suggested two different plans to the government in the first week of April this year to bring the JuD and similar people in south Punjab into the mainstream.
General Amjad Shoaib said that the first plan was to involve some JuD and others (non-violent) into the mainstream politics. He said that this was one-and-a-half year plan and it was with the prime minister who has not taken any action on this during the last seven to eight months.
General Amjad Shoaib said that the second plan recommended by the DG ISI to the government was about recruiting violent extremists of these organisations in Rangers and FC after segregating and de-radicalising them. This plan of the DG ISI was sent to Nacta where this was put in a cold storage.https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/161530-NSA-says-plan-to-de-radicalise-militants-not-in-cold-storage
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