BRUSSELS, Jan 29: The European Union’s anti-terrorism czar urged EU nations on Thursday to help bolster Pakistan’s police force and justice system, which he said was a key to defeating terrorism there.

“This country is faced with very, very serious security problems,” EU counter-terrorism coordinator Gilles de Kerchove told members of the European Parliament.

“The government needs our support – economic support of course – but also in terms of security,” he told the assembly’s security and defence subcommittee in Brussels. “The needs for this are huge.” He said the security problem was most acute in the largely lawless tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, but also in the Punjab region, whose militants he described as even “more sophisticated”.

De Kerchove, who recently returned from a visit to Pakistan, said that while the army could capture extremists it had trouble to stop them returning to action.

“The military are not trained for that,” he said. “They really need to move toward a law enforcement approach.”

“Most of the terrorists arrested last year have been released for lack of evidence,” he said. “The justice aspect should not be overlooked, and I hope to convince (EU) member states to increase assistance to actively help Pakistan.”

The European Commission is to set afoot an expert mission which will travel to Pakistan, in the late European spring or summer, to examine what the EU can do to help improve police forensics and crime scene analysis.

The EU is also debating how it can help Pakistan better confront security problems through the possible use of European development funds and assistance to the media.—AFP