Pakistan's Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar on Wednesday condemned two recent "heinous" acts of terrorism and said such "cowardly" acts would never weaken the country's resolve to deal with the menace. His remarks, made at an Inter-Parliamentary Speakers' Conference in Islamabad, followed a suicide blast in Pakistan's federal capital and an attack on a cadet college in Wana in the past 48 hours, which he said resulted in the loss of 15 "precious lives." "Let me be very clear — these cowardly acts will never shake or weaken our national resolve to deal with this menace [terrorism]," Dar said. "If anything, they reaffirm our conviction that dialogue, understanding and partnership are the only sustainable path of peace and security." "We categorically reject acts of terrorism in all forms and manifestations, whether these take place in Islamabad or anywhere in the world," he asserted. Dar noted that terrorism was "one of the major global challenges of our time," stressing that "Pakistan has been a bulwark against this menace that does not recognise any boundary or religion, gender, ethnicity or race". The suicide blast in Islamabad was the first in the federal capital in nearly three years. Officials said the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had claimed responsibility for the attack, in which a lone bomber blew himself up at the main entrance to a complex in the G-11 sector after failing to enter the premises. Meanwhile, security sources said on Wednesday that all the militants involved in the attack on the Cadet College in Wana had been killed. Pakistan has witnessed an uptick in terror activities in the past year, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, after the TTP ended its ceasefire with the government in November 2022 and vowed to attack security forces and law enforcement personnel.
