Some politicians are ‘supporting’ terrorism: Durrani

* Information minister says media and govt should unite against militants
* Says free media is a threat to militancy

ISLAMABAD: Federal Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani said on Tuesday that some politicians are directly supporting terrorism and they would be exposed very soon.

He told this to a delegation of Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists (RIUJ) and Bara Press Club here. RIUJ President Afzal Butt was leading the delegation.

Durrani said it was not only the government that is facing terrorism threats, but the media is also not free from such intimidation. The entire nation must unite against terrorism, he said.

He said the government is providing full protection to journalists of NWFP and the Tribal Areas. “If we want to effectively root out terrorist and extremist tendencies from our social fabric, the media will have to come forward with a plan to form an alliance against this menace,” he added.

According to Online, Durrani said it is a credit to the present government that it has provided full freedom of expression to the media. He said all illegal FM channels in the Tribal Areas would soon be banned.

Muhammad Ali Durrani said the government has prepared a comprehensive strategy plan for the NWFP and Tribal Areas. The government has also increased the number of law enforcing agencies in NWFP, he added.

Free media a threat: The federal minister said that a free and responsible media is a great threat to the terrorists’ agenda and it makes them the most likely target of terrorist attacks. He said the extremist’s basic drive to challenge the writ of the state in the Tribal Areas is to make sure that no one can enjoy the freedoms that the Constitution provides to them. The local Taliban, he added, do this only to protect the interests of a certain group or to impose their personal views, which have nothing to do with any religion.

Minister Durrani advised the organisation to raise its voice for the journalists of the Tribal Areas at the national level.

He also pledged to facilitate a countrywide tour of all the press clubs in FATA. “The Ministry of Information would soon hold a conference of press clubs from across the country and a strategy would be worked out to resolve the threat to the media posed by terrorist and extremist elements,” he said.He said the protection and enhancement of professionalism of tribal journalists was his utmost concern, as he fully believed that their job is the “toughest assignment” a journalist can imagine.

The delegation briefed the minister on security challenges and threats being faced by the journalist community in most parts of FATA and NWFP at the hands of the local Taliban, reported APP. They told the minister that the local Taliban groups communicate with the people through illegal FM radio channels and issue directives against those journalists who try to expose their evil deeds. agencies

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