RAWALPINDI: Chief of Army Staff Raheel Sharif on Tuesday has directed corps commanders and intelligence outfits to further intensify combing and targeted operations with the aim to eliminate terrorists and sleepers cells.

The army chief was addressing the Corps Commanders Conference at General Headquarters attended by all corps commanders and principal staff officers.

“The cowardly terror attack on Pakistan’s judiciary, carried out in a hospital, is an attempt to undermine the successes of Operation Zarb-i-Azb,” said the army chief at the forum.

General Raheel added that by adopting a national approach, the armed forces would not allow anyone to reverse the gains made in the fight against terrorism.

All commanders were also directed to provide all necessary assistance to provincial law-enforcement agencies in capacity building, training and planning to further improve effectiveness in counter-terrorism operations.

The forum also expressed its deepest sympathies with grieved families and injured of Quetta blast.

Participants of the conference were given detailed briefings on ongoing military operations and the overall external and internal security situation in the country with particular reference to the counter terrorism domain.

The high-level huddle by military officials was held a day after the carnage in Quetta, which killed 70 people.

A suicide bomber targeted the emergency services ward at Quetta’s Civil Hospital.

The Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), a splinter group of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the militant Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the attack.