ISLAMABAD: Condemning the killing of 20 troops in a Taliban attack in Bannu on Sunday, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said national unity was a prerequisite for talking to or waging a war against the Taliban.

Talking to media persons at the Punjab House here, Nisar sought a detailed report from the Inspector General of the Frontier Corps (FC) on the tragic incident.He said appropriate measures had not been taken for the movement of security forces’ personnel, as a private vehicle was used for their transportation.

“The incident in which we have lost so many lives is a security lapse,” the minister remarked. He said an investigation was in progress to determine whether it was a suicide attack or a bomb explosion and it will become clear in a couple of days.

He said the explosives used in the attack were so powerful that the vehicles and bodies of the jawans were torn to pieces. “The army is investigating the matter,” Nisar added.The minister said a Joint Intelligence Directorate will be set up for coordination and intelligence sharing among the 26 intelligence agencies of the country to tackle terrorism.

He said the ongoing war was not conventional, as there was no concentrated and visible enemy against which force could be used.The minister said the draft of the National Internal Security Policy (NISP) will be presented before a special meeting of the cabinet on Monday (today) for final approval. He said the decision about holding a dialogue with the Taliban or launching a military operation would be made in the light of the policy.

“The national security policy will comprise three parts – secret, strategic, and operational. The sensitive part of the policy will be kept secret, part two will be strategic in which it will be decided how the government will react to terrorist attacks, while in the third part national defence will be strengthened to protect cities and people,” the minister said.

“Dialogue and operations will be processed simultaneously,” the minister averred. He said under the strategic aspect of the policy, it will be decided when to hold dialogue with the militants, when to carry out a military operation and when to do both simultaneously.

He said the aim of the policy was to protect people by enhancing the capacity of the law enforcement and intelligence agencies. He said the policy will be implemented in a year to protect all areas of the country by using the latest technology.

Under the policy, the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) will be the focal point to tackle terrorism, he said, adding a Rapid Response Force, supported by an air wing, will be set up at the federal level which will respond to acts of terror within minutes. This force will be replicated in the provinces, he added.

The new apparatus will work round the clock to translate thousands of excerpts of chatter, generated every day, into actionable intelligence, Nisar said, adding that mapping will also be conducted in cities to create identity databases of people.

“Pakistan, like other countries, cannot ensure security by manning pickets, so technology would be used to counter terrorism,” he maintained.Nisar warned politicians against playing politics on security matters and asked them to play their role in pulling the country out of the ongoing calamity.

He said those who remained in power for 13 years did nothing to hold dialogue or carry out an operation against terrorists but now they were criticising the government which started a dialogue with the Taliban in less than three months and set the right direction for the country.

The interior minister said thousands of extracts gathered by intelligence agencies daily was 20 percent of the work. He said the important work was to correlate and translate all the information into actionable intelligence.

He said the aim of intelligence gathering would be to identify networks in Karachi, Peshawar and the tribal areas and then isolate them and take action against them.The interior minister said the US Homeland Security Department had hired the services of 40,000 persons from different fields to correlate the intelligence gathered by their agencies.He said due to a lack of coordination among the intelligence agencies, the intelligence gathered in Karachi, Peshawar or Lahore was not shared, making it of no use.