ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Interior Minister Dr. Gohar Ejaz on Friday said that a total of 56 terrorist incidents took place across the country on February 8 to disrupt the polling process.
Briefing media persons about the overall security situation in the country and the challenges specifically regarding election day, he said that the major challenge of the caretaker government was to provide security to the people of the country on polling day.
Sharing details of the casualties, the minister added that three military jawans, two levies jawans, seven police officials, four civilians including two minors lost their lives in the incidents.
He went on to say the government had made a difficult decision to shut down the mobile service across Pakistan in a high-level meeting on February 7 following the two deadliest terrorist attacks in which 28 innocent lives were lost.
The minister said the government had received intelligence reports that the terrorists would carry out cowardly activities in different areas through detonated devices.
He congratulated the deployment of hundreds of thousands of regular and civil armed forces, other law enforcement agencies and civilian officials across the country for successful general elections.
Dr. Gohar said that overall, 61 incidents of violence were also reported across the during elections. He added all the incidents were being investigated and the action would be taken against culprits.
He went on to say that deaths of 28 people and serious injuries to 64 others in terrorist incidents just one day prior to the elections forced the state to take several measures for ensuring safety of the citizens.
He said the government had to take a difficult decision of suspending the mobile phone services across the country to stopping the terrorists to communicate, coordinate and conduct terrorist operations.
The minister said mobile devices were also very instrumental to trigger mechanisms for modern explosive devices for mass destruction.
He said the government was fully aware that suspension of mobile services would impact the transmission of election results across the country and delay the process.
He said the government had to tale the difficult decision to ensure the safety and security of the citizens.
The minister said even with such strict safety measures in place, the polling day witnessed 61 incidents of violence including terrorist attacks which consumed the lives of 16 innocent citizens and injuring 54 others.