LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-iInsaf, PML-Q and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) have welcomed launch of operation against militants in south Punjab, demanding that strict action should be taken against terrorists throughout the province.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan, speaking to the media persons after visiting those injured in Gulshan-i-Iqbal Park suicide blast in Shaikh Zayed and Jinnah hospitals on Monday, said it was high time that action against terrorists be launched simultaneously in all provinces under the National Action Plan (NAP).

Mr Khan said it was decided in the NAP that no militant group would beallowed to operate in the country.

`An across-the-board action must be taken against terrorists in the country, he demanded, adding that police should also be de-politicised under the NAP.

After the Army Public School terrorist attack in Peshawar, he said the Lahore suicide blast was the most tragic terrorism activity in the country, wherein a large number of children were killed.

The PTI chief said the Punjab government had failed to provide protection to the citizens because it had deputed most of the security personnel to protect VVIPS. He said the masses had been left at the mercy of terrorists.

Mr Khan said the government`s job was to form and promulgate laws, while the police and other security agencies were required to implement the laws.However, he said, unfortunately the Punjab government was using police for political purposes and victimising the political opponents. In Sindh, he said, the institution of police was destroyed by using it for political purposes.

`When police does not perform its duties honestly, Rangers are eventually called in to take control of the deteriorating situation,` he said.

Earlier, the PTI chief visited the injured in hospitals and expressed his sympathies, besides expressing grief overthe deaths ofinnocent people.

Later, Mr Khan visited Jamia Ashrafia and offered condolences on the death of Maulana Ubaidullah.

In a meeting with Maulana Ubaidullah`s son Hafiz Asad Ubaid and other relatives, he offered Fateha andprayed that the late Maulana`s soul might rest in eternal peace.

Addressing the PAT Core Committee from Canada via video link here on Monday, party chairman Dr Tahirul Qadri said the operation should have been startedlongagobefore the terrorists could carried out their activities in the towns of the province and thus the Gulshan-i-Iqbal incident could have been averted.

He asked whether the authorities were waiting for more such incidents to take place in other parts of the province before allowing action in central and upper Punjab. He demanded arrest of all facilitators, financiers, political or non-political supporters of militants in an operation across Punjab.

Dr Qadri asked the army chief not tolimit this operation to south Punjab only and continue it till elimination of lastterroristin the province.

He said all the banned organisations operating in Punjab, extremist groups, and institutions supporting extremist mind-set, besides those behind the 1(illing of innocent PAT worl(ers in the Model Town incident, should be annihilated.

The PAT chief said that those who had been making efforts to delay the operation in Punjab should also be apprehended for `having a sof t corner` for terrorist groups and terrorism.

Similarly, Pakistan Muslim LeagueQuaid president Chaudhry Shujaat Husain on Monday visited the Lahore blast injured at Shaikh Zayed Hospital and said the Punjab government had notdoneenoughtopreventsuchattacks.

Expressing grief over the loss of life, Shujaat said the Punjab government had not paid any attention to intelligence-based warnings about the blast.

`Under the National Action Plan operation should be carried out throughout the Punjab province and not in just southern part,` he said while talking to reporters at the hospital.

He said the Punjab government was not discharging its responsibility in nabbing terrorists and their facilitators properly.

Shujaat said the operation must be carried out in Punjab to arrest terrorists and their facilitators and also allay reservation of other provinces. He said after the Lahore attack the army had started the operation against terrorists in Punjab.