Pakistan's military is planning to initiate a new operation across the country to eliminate Pakistani Taliban militants, the country's national security committee said on Friday.
Pakistan is in danger of defaulting on its debt, with an International Monetary Fund bailout program stalled since November, while a bruising political battle is raging between the government and former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The last time Pakistan launched an all-out operation against the militants was in 2014, and it cost the country billions of dollars and resulted in over a million people being displaced and hundreds being killed.
"The meeting agreed to launch an all-out comprehensive operation with the entire nation and the government, which will rid the country of the menace of terrorism with renewed vigor and determination," the security committee said in a statement.
Pakistan, a nuclear-armed country of 220 million people, has seen a rise in attacks by militants in the last few months, particularly since negotiations with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group broke down last year.
This year, the group and its factions have unleashed a wave of attacks including a suicide bombing at a mosque in the northwestern city of Peshawar that killed over 100 people, mostly policemen.
The security committee said it held a meeting on Friday, chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and attended by the country's military leadership resulting in the formation of a committee to make recommendations regarding details of the anti-militant operations within two weeks.