ISLAMABAD: The federal and provincial governments on Wednesday agreed on a joint strategy to establish peace and stability in the country.

An agreement to this effect was reached during an important meeting on law and order held with Minister of State for Interior Tallal Chaudhry in the chair.

The development comes amid the surge of terrorist attacks, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, carried out by Fitna Al Khawarij and Fitna Al Hindustan — state-designated names for terror outfits backed by Indian proxies.

During the meeting, the Centre assured provincial governments of the provision of necessary resources and technical support to maintain law and order.

“Protection of citizens’ lives and property is the state’s top priority,” Chaudhry remarked. He also praised the security forces’ role in the fight against terrorism.

“The security forces remain resolute and unwavering in their commitment to defend the nation’s frontiers and such sacrifices of our brave soldiers further strengthen our resolve,” he said.

The meeting was attended by the federal interior secretary, the provincial inspector generals (IG) of police, the provincial home secretaries, and the Islamabad chief commissioner and police chief.

Talking to Dawn after the meeting, Chaudhry said the meeting also assessed the threat level following strikes by Pakistan in neighbouring Afghanistan.

He said the camps and hideouts that were targeted belonged to armed groups behind the spate of recent attacks, including a deadly suicide bombing at an imambargah in Islamabad.

He said the key characters behind recent terrorist incidents had been trained inside Afghanistan. He said these attacks had also been planned in the neighbouring country.

He said Pakistan had conclusive evidence to prove that the recent attacks on its soil were carried out by terrorists and suicide bombers acting at the behest of their Afghanistan-based leadership and handlers.

He said Islamabad had repeatedly urged Kabul to take verifiable steps to prevent armed groups from using Afghan soil, but that no substantive action had followed.

He advised Kabul to implement the Doha agreement, which bars the use of Afghan soil for terrorist activities, in letter and spirit instead of playing in the hands of another one of Pakistan’s hostile neighbours.

He said the path of peace with Pakistan was in the best interest of Afghanistan, and an essential prerequisite was bringing to an end the use of Afghan soil for terrorism in Pakistan.

Chaudhry said while Pakistan desired peaceful relations with all its neighbours, the security of Pakistani citizens remained its top priority, which would not be compromised.

The minister said 2025 was the worst in terms of terror incidents in Pakistan and regretted that they continued to take place. He, however, said “enough was enough” and now all possible steps would be taken to stamp out terrorism through coordinated efforts by the federal and provincial governments.

He said the institutional mechanism involving threat alert generation, threat assessment, and the response to deal with them was working well and had helped prevent major terror incidents across the country.