Beijing: Pakistan has deployed 1.42 lakh
troops along the restive borders with Afghanistan to contain
Taliban and al Qaeda surge and so far lost over 2,200 military
personnel in the operations against the militants, Pakistan
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said here on Tuesday.
In the operations, more than 7,000 terrorists have
been killed and over 9,000 miscreants apprehended, Qureshi
said.
Speaking on `Pakistan’s Challenges and Our Response`
at the China Institute of International Studies here, he said
over 2,200 soldiers were killed and 6,251 others injured in
the operations.
"This number is greater than the combined casualties
of all the NATO countries. In addition to this, thousands of
innocent civilians, including women and children in Pakistan,
have fallen victims to terror in the past eight years," he
underlined.
"According to conservative estimates, in the past
eight years, we have lost more than USD 50 billion in the
prosecution of war against terrorism," he said, adding that it
has denied Pakistani youth their full potential to grow and
educate themselves. "Yet we have persevered," he said.
Qureshi said Pakistan army conducted successful
operations to secure Swat and adjoining Malakan Division where
the government writ has now been restored.
"A full scale operation in South Waziristan launched
in October 2009 has also been successful," he said.
PTI
