WASHINGTON: The United States state department, in its ‘Country Reports on Terrorism 2019’, has noted that Pakistan continues to be a safe haven for terrorist groups.
The report points out that Pakistan continues to allow groups targeting India and those targeting Afghanistan to operate from its soil.
Among the India-centric groups, the report listed Lashkar-e-Taiba(LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed(JeM) and their affiliates and front organisations.
Among the groups targeting Afghanistan it listed the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network.
The report notes that Pakistan took some modest steps in 2019 to check terror financing and to restrain some anti-India militant groups following the Pulwama terror attacks in February. However, the south Asian nation is yet to take decisive actions against India and Afghanistan-focused militants that would effectively undermine their operational capability.
Though the report praises the Pakistani government for playing a ‘constructive’ role in the US-Taliban talks in 2019 it makes it clear that Pakistan’s progress on the most difficult aspects of its 2015 National Action Plan to counter terrorism remains unfulfilled, especially its pledge to dismantle all terrorist organizations without delay and discrimination.
The report notes that Pakistani authorities have made no effort to prosecute terrorist leaders such as JeM founder Masood Azhar and Sajid Mir, the man believed to be the mastermind of LeT’s 2008 Mumbai attacks. Both these individuals are believed to be residing in Pakistan under the protection of the state, though the government denies it.
Pakistan experienced significant terrorist threats in 2019, although the number of attacks and casualties was lower than in 2018, continuing an overall year-on-year decline.
The report picks Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and ISIS-K to be the biggest terrorist groups focused on conducting attacks in Pakistan.
The report says that Pakistan in 2019 made some progress toward meeting the action plan requirements for the FATF so that it is not blacklisted, but did not complete all action plan items. (AGENCIES)
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