PESHAWAR, Oct 11: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Thursday called for action against militants in North Waziristan, saying all other options for eliminating militancy from the tribal agency had failed.

“The time has come that the federal government and security forces should launch a full-scale offensive against warmongers in North Waziristan and other restive parts of Fata to establish lasting peace in the region,” provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told a news conference at Peshawar Press Club here.

Mr Hussain asked how long the people of the province would be rendering sacrifices, receiving ‘bodies of sons and daughters’ and crying over them.

He cautioned that terrorist groups might be reorganising themselves in the region.

The minister said militants had carried out attacks in Waziristan and Mohmand agencies and also launched attacks from across the border.

He said his government was ready for talks with militant groups but that should be meaningful.

Mr Hussain said the government had declared Friday as ‘Yum-i-Dua’ (prayer day) appealing to the people to offer special prayers for the early recovery of Malala Yousafzai, Shazia and another girl, who received injuries in the Tuesday attack on a school van in Mingora.

He said prayers would be offered for the early recovery of Malala and two other schoolgirls in the morning assembly of schools across the province, while one-minute silence would be observed in all government and semi-government offices at 12pm in the day.

He said the auqaf department had been directed to ask khateebs to offer prayers for Malala.

“Malala is our national hero and symbol of peace. We should convert her sprit and blood into a movement to get rid of these barbaric people,” he said.

The minister said banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan had claimed responsibility for the Malala attack but even then, some politicians and religious leaders didn’t condemn their (Taliban) action.

He said these leaders should give up hypocrisy and come forward against those attacking an innocent girl and killing thousands of civilians, soldiers and officers.

“Let us abandon hypocrisy and double standard. The entire nation should openly condemn the TTP act,” he said, adding that the people, who claimed that Malala had been used, deserved condemnation. About the health of Malala, who was shifted to Rawalpindi earlier in the day, the information minister said she was critical and the nation should pray for her early recovery.

When asked why she was shifted to Rawalpindi, he said doctors had advised to do so. He added that security was one of the factors for the girl’s shifting to Rawalpindi from Peshawar and the provincial government was taken into confidence.

Mr Hussain expressed gratitude on behalf of the provincial government to all those heads of states and governments, human rights organisations and the civil society across the world for showing solidarity with Malala and her family.