Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain said today that the armed forces were "successfully" eliminating terrorism from the country, amid mounting global pressure on Islamabad to deny safe havens to terrorists.
US President Donald Trump publicly rebuked Pakistan for allowing safe havens to terrorists last month and BRICS grouping named Pakistan-based terror groups as a concern for region security at their ninth summit in China this week.
Pakistan's Defence Minister Khurram Dastgir rejected the BRICS declaration yesterday, saying his country has taken action against all terror groups and "only the remnants of some are left."
President Hussain, in his message on the 52nd Defence Day today, said the armed forces and law enforcement agencies "are successfully rooting out" terrorism from the country.
Pakistan celebrates the Defence Day to mark the 1965 war with India. The state-run 'Radio Pakistan' reported that the country observed the day "with a renewed pledge to defend the motherland against all threats."
Special prayers were offered in mosques for the martyrs of the war and for Pakistan's progress.
Pakistan's former army chief Gen Raheel Sharif laid a wreath on the grave of his brother Maj Shabbir Sharif, who was killed in the 1971 war with India, in Lahore.
In his message, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said: "We can only defeat our enemies through strict adherence to the cardinal principles of unity, faith and discipline laid down by the Father of the Nation (Mohammad Ali Jinnah)."
Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa said: "The enemy would run out of bullets but we will never be short of jawans taking bullets on their chests.
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