War against terrorism is the war for Pakistan’s future: Air Chief

E-Paper | October 01, 2026

War against terrorism is the war for Pakistan’s future: Air Chief

Mateen Haider Published September 21, 2015

PESHAWAR: Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman on Monday visited Pakistan Air Force (PAF) camp Badaber and said that the war against terrorism is the war for Pakistan’s future.

“The enemies of Pakistan should remain cognisant of the fact that no one can shake our resolve,” said ACM Sohail Aman, while addressing a gathering of PAF airmen during his visit to the PAF base.

Read: Army captain among 29 killed in TTP-claimed attack on PAF camp in Peshawar

“The air chief prayed for the martyrs of the attack and lauded the valiant response of the airmen who fought bravely during the recent terrorist attack,” said Air Commodore S M Ali, a spokesperson for the PAF.

ACM Sohail Aman also said on the occasion that PAF as a force is more resilient to fight against the menace of terrorism and they will never let the terrorists succeed in their nefarious designs

Late last week, at least 42 people, including 13 terrorists, were killed as PAF Badaber came under attack by Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants.

Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman had met COAS Raheel Sharif and the Corps Commander at Corps Headquarters in Peshawar during the attack and had also briefed the prime minister about the ongoing operation in Badaber over the telephone.

Also read: PAF Badaber camp attack was planned, controlled from Afghanistan: DG ISPR

In a press conference later on the day of the attack, Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major-General Asim Bajwa had said that the attack on PAF Badaber camp was planned and controlled from Afghanistan.

However, the government of Afghanistan strongly rejected the claims as baseless that the attack on PAF camp in Peshawar was planned and controlled from Afghanistan.

Pakistan

Fight against terrorism is 'paramount', cannot be 'sacrificed at altar of anyone’s politics': army spokesperson

Only three out of 1,024 candidates pass KP civil judges examination

PTI MNA rejects ‘pressure tactics’, backs protest march plan

A. Ali

Sep 21, 2015 04:49pm

Sir, we nee you and our PAF in combination to thwart any aggression by any of the coward neighbors.. you are the sentinels and guardians of this land. we are with you whenever, wherever you need the nation. we are so proud of you,, PAF.

Recommend 0

M. Emad

Sep 21, 2015 04:50pm

''War against terrorism is the war for Pakistan’s future: Air Chief'' --- This realization at top very needed for Pakistan.

Recommend 0

Economy

Sep 21, 2015 04:50pm

That is great. Terrorism is fueled through corruption, both wholesale corruption of current government or the retail level corruption of the previous government, look for example WAPDA, the audit report points 980 billion irregularities. And still WAPDA is headed by the Chairman who is on extension, and all its members part-timers. If governance didn't improve corruption and terrorism shall not subside!

Recommend 0

Padmakar

Sep 21, 2015 04:50pm

There are no good and bad terrorists. They are the enemies of Humanity.

Recommend 0

@expat

Sep 21, 2015 04:53pm

PAF failed to protect its bases and employees. Who will accept the responsibility of 29 deaths ? Talk is not enough, actions are needed.

Recommend 0

OBSERVER

Sep 21, 2015 05:12pm

One thing that puzzles me is: How come, the attacking terrorists were not stopped/identified at the road blocks on their route from Afghanistan. There seems to be an intelligence lapse,especially after a cafastrofic attack on APS.

Recommend 0

M. Khan

Sep 21, 2015 05:15pm

Religious extremism, self righteousness, strict, literal and inflexible interpretation of religious text is dangerous phenomenon. Which ever unfortunate country is afflicted with it, it takes nose dive in long term. Taliban are everything I mentioned above. Taliban are products of narrow minded sectarian religious seminaries. Not only should Pakistan go after Taliban, but should do everything in its power to close down the nurseries of hate, and sectarian strife i.e sectarian and extremist madrassas. All religious minorities and their places of worship be protected. Only then mainstream mosques will be safe from the violence of extremist mullahs and their henchmen Taliban. Military action is only one aspect of this war. It must be fought on other fronts like educating masses on religious tolerance, co-existence, rule of law, social justice, self help, respecting and promoting right to disagree, dialogue among others.

Recommend 0

Cyrus

Sep 21, 2015 05:18pm

@M. Emad .... This realization at the very bottom is needed in Pakistan.

Recommend 0

Harmony-1

Sep 21, 2015 05:18pm

Yes, "war against terrorism is the war for Pakistan’s future". Definitely, so...bravo! Terror financing is one of the major issues. This needs to be tackled head on without any compromise and any political pressure to save someone has to be dismissed without discrimination.

Recommend 0

Harmony-1

Sep 21, 2015 05:23pm

@Padmakar - That's an old rhetoric now. We have well moved on from that! Don't confuse it with proxy wars though. If one does it, the other will do as tit for tat.

Recommend 0

Padmakar

Sep 21, 2015 05:34pm

@M. Khan Very effective solution brother.

Recommend 0

Muhammad Usman

Sep 21, 2015 05:37pm

We should also stop funding of extremist specially through the religious channels like zakat and skin of sacrifice animals.

Recommend 0

Suhani

Sep 21, 2015 06:05pm

@M. Khan Very rightly said. Root cause of terrorism is in Islamic Fanatical preaching of hatred for others faith, intolerance for practicing of Islamic Rituals differently as per the convenience of individual, Shut and close anything which does not fit in Islamic thought, blasphemy if practiced differently, killing animals in the name sacrifice, violence are the major source of conflict and terrorism. Shoot the cause of evil through reforms. Close out all the madarsas if they do not impart mainstream modern education. Ban preaching Islam in primary education. Than only future of Pakistan can be secured, otherwise chaos and much more disaster are in pipeline by various groups like ISIS and affilates

Recommend 0

s kamal

Sep 21, 2015 06:18pm

War against selective terrorism will lead to nothing..

Recommend 0

Tariq

Sep 21, 2015 06:29pm

Its quite evident that PAF failed to protect its bases and employees. Army's QRF had to rush in to neutralize the terrorists. Who will accept the responsibility of 29 deaths ? Talk talk and talk is not enough, punish the negligent some serious actions are needed badly.

Recommend 0

Naser

Sep 21, 2015 06:47pm

Since 10 years thousands of such attack killed unaccounted number of Pakistanis and every time we heard this rhetorics. Why we start acting on every non state actors instead of selective approach when it comes to terrorism?

Recommend 0

sahani

Sep 21, 2015 06:58pm

All islamic nations facing the internal war of death and destruction .All due to one reason book of arab as their daily reading teaches them no development but the death and destruction. Bring back your root culture to save nation .Islamic teaching proven since 1400 yrs will lead to all early death only.

Recommend 0

SIVA - DOHA

Sep 21, 2015 07:00pm

Mr. Hashmi... Blaming India on Bangladesh is unreasonable. Trouble started when the won election and Ayub Khan did not transfer the power to them. They asked for separation. The present taliban problem was your unnecessary involvement in Afghan affairs. You thought supporting Afghan pusthu people can influence and control Afghan Government. All failed. Other one is supporting unwinning war against India for Kashmir. Huge resources and energy spend for huge army which money could have used for Pakistani peoples education, factories, employment etc. Not single country in the world supporting Pakistan on Kashmir including Muslim countries. At any near future I don't see winning a war and taking over Kashmir. It is time to accept LOC and go ahead with prosperous Pakistan.

Recommend 0

Zak

Sep 21, 2015 08:03pm

Best Air Force in air and on ground.

Recommend 0

cautious

Sep 21, 2015 08:20pm

If your focus in Terrorist then why spend most of your military budget on nukes, cruise missiles, Chinese submarines, J-17's and Russian SU-35's?

Recommend 0

A Laddo

Sep 21, 2015 09:14pm

The fueling blame game between Pakistan and Afghanistan is going to open another chapter. We know that India is a party in this. Till then keep killing those who challenge our identity.

Recommend 0

Naeem

Sep 21, 2015 09:17pm

The Us war on terror was their battle for the future of their country. What happend to that? They ended theirs and we started ours? Will we learn that terrorism cannot be defeated or eliminated but only controlled? You cannot fight any "ism" which is an indoctrination or ideology. What you can do is change the way you are and how you approach those who use hideous ideologies against you owing to own nefarious agendas.

Recommend 0

Ganesh

Sep 21, 2015 10:00pm

You are very much correct Mr. Chief, war against terrorism is for Pakistan's future. Even then with all this wisdom, Pakistan thinks terrorism is not important to be discussed with immediate neighbours. Let Pakistan focus all its energies on ' unresolved issue of partition' for bright future!!!!

Recommend 0

Uday Kulkarni

Sep 21, 2015 10:10pm

@Economy - Terrorism has nothiung to do with Corruption. Pls do not confuse both. Corruption is simple equation of Demand v/s Supply of resources available in the country.Countries with higher GDP or economically better have correspondingly less corruption

Recommend 0

Uday Kulkarni

Sep 21, 2015 10:17pm

Continued.. Western countries boast of less corruption only because supply of resources is available w.r.t. to the demand in their countries relatively compared to resouces constrained countries esp the Asian; SE Asian; African countries, and not because they are different kind of human beings. Ever tried doing a corelation of Corruption index of countries with their respective GDP and development indices ?

Recommend 0

waheed

Sep 21, 2015 11:04pm

System should be full proof, no excuses, no breeches.

Recommend 0

Azhar

Sep 22, 2015 12:50am

@Economy of course no will believe it. They believe corruption is our right.

Recommend 0

Azhar

Sep 22, 2015 12:51am

@OBSERVER I am afraid to conclude if check points were compromised.

Recommend 0

obivankanobi

Sep 22, 2015 01:56am

Absolutely. Thankfully someone with common sense has at last shifted the focus from villain India to home grown problems destroying Pakistan's social fabric.

Recommend 0

Canada For Canadians

Sep 22, 2015 02:52am

Excellent. Chief Of Staff Acknowledged that who is real enemy of Pakistan and it is not India. He has clear understanding of the problems of the country which is engulfing the state and its boundary.

Recommend 0

Azhar

Sep 22, 2015 03:34am

@Uday Kulkarni , corruption caused a disbelief on the state. People and particularly youth can't access to jobs, education or loans. Then poor youth taped by international and national terrorist to act on their behalf. It could be pure terrorism, but I am strongly believe corruption speeded us to create so many terrorist.

Recommend 0

Azhar

Sep 22, 2015 03:35am

@@expat indeed. I agreed, the security was compromised. It must required serious attention.

Recommend 0

Sachin

Sep 22, 2015 05:59am

@Uday Kulkarni. So is prosperity the cause or the consequences of corruption ?? Singapore does not have much natural resources. UK such a tiny country with little natural resources, Denmark,Sweden etc all very very less corruption, wheras Russia such a resource rich country but so much corruption. Corruption lies in low human ethics and high greed and concentrating too much power in hands of govt employees and officers.

Recommend 0

sukhera

Sep 22, 2015 06:41am

The terrorist attack our base and schools at will and in response our air force drops few bombs on suspected terrorists hideouts. We think we have accomplished our mission until they attack us again. Enemy's command and control center in Afghanistan is untouched and intact. The business of recruiting more young people from Pakistan is on the rise. Did you ever think that we are actually losing the war against terrorists by our half hearted actions ? As long as their leadership is well, they will keep sending more men to hurt us. We have to take action against the leadership if we want to stop the cycle of death and destruction. Making public announcements against the terrorists without action is a waste of time.

Recommend 0

Akash

Sep 22, 2015 03:49pm

Hope people realize that there is no bad terrorist and good terrorist! They all are terrorist and needs to be eliminated.

Recommend 0

Branded Content

Putting better health in more hands: Reckitt Pakistan unveils Saaf Sehatmand Pakistan in partnership with Aga Khan Foundation

Powered by Dettol and Harpic, the flagship platform begins in schools to provide safe drinking water, rehabilitated toilets, handwashing facilities and hygiene education.

28 years of McDonald’s Pakistan: celebrating the local partners behind the Golden Arches

The milestone highlighted the structural evolution of the company's local procurement model.

Etihad Town Sialkot delivers Possession ahead of time

The project was delivered within just 1.5 years against a 3-year payment plan, while commercial possession had already been handed over to customers in January 2026.