Pakistan calls on religious leaders to build ‘narrative’ after deadliest militant attacks in years

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has announced the federal government will consult religious scholars from all schools of thought to build a “narrative in the war against terrorism” in the wake of a string of deadly militant attacks, state-run Radio Pakistan reported on Wednesday.
Over 50 people were killed in multiple coordinated militant attacks by separatists across various districts of the southwestern Balochistan province last month. 
Elsewhere in the country, particularly the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, religiously motivated groups like the Pakistani Taliban have also stepped up attacks, daily targeting security forces convoys and check posts, and carrying out targeted killings and kidnappings of security and government officials.
“Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi says consultation will be made with the religious scholars of all schools of thought to evolve an effective narrative in the war against terrorism,” Radio Pakistan reported on Wednesday after the minister met the chairman of the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee, Maulana Syed Muhammad Abdul Khabeer Azad.
Naqvi said a nationwide consultation campaign with the ulema would be initiated as he urged religious scholars to “play their role” in helping fight militancy and extremist mindsets. 
Pakistan has blamed the recent surge in attacks on regional neighbors, including archrival India and Afghanistan, where it says the coming to power of the Afghan Taliban has emboldened anti-Pakistan groups like the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Kabul says it does not allow its territory to be used by terror groups. 
Pakistan also says that India and Afghanistan are fomenting militancy in Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan and has been the site of a decades-long separatist insurgency. Ethnic Baloch militants say they are fighting for secession due to what they see as the unfair exploitation of the province’s mineral and gas wealth by the federation, which denies the charge.