Pakistan Has Failed to Control Terror Outfits Like Lashkar and Jaish Says US Report

The US State Department has released a report, which says Pakistan has failed to control a major terrorist organisation like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) from recruiting, training and funding terrorists on its soil and has allowed their frontal organisations to contest even in the general elections in July last year.

The report, which has been titled ‘Country Reports on Terrorism 2018’, says Pakistan has failed clearly in restricting the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network from operating on its soil, despite Islamabad’s open support for the political reconciliation between the Afghan government and Taliban.

Meanwhile, it has acknowledged the efforts of the government of Pakistan in the implementation of conditions laid down by Financial Action Task Force or FATF, but has slammed it for failing to uniformly implement the UN sanctions against terror outfits like LeT and its affiliates.

The report said, “Although the Pakistani government has showed support for the political reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Afghan Taliban, but it did not restrict the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network (HQN) operating from Pakistani soil, threatening the US and Afghan forces in Afghanistan”.

The report also added, “The government has failed clearly in limiting Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) from raising money, recruiting, and training in Pakistan - and allowed candidates affiliated with LeT’s frontal organisations to contest the July general elections”, referring to the Milli Muslim League (MML) founded by global terrorist Hafiz Saeed, which also fielded its candidates in the 2018 general election in Pakistan.

The report also highlighted significant terror attacks in Pakistan in the year 2018, which was carried out by several outfits like Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), ISIS's Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), and the sectarian group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Alami (LJA) and said, “Pakistan experienced significant terrorist threats in 2018, although the number of attacks and casualties has continued to decrease from previous years”.

The terror groups conducted terror attacks on governmental, non-governmental and diplomatic targets in Balochistan and Sindh provinces.

As the report underlines, “Groups located in Pakistan, but focused on conducting attacks outside the country, included the Afghan Taliban, HQN, LeT and it’s affiliated front organisations, and JeM. The terrorists used wide range of tactics while attacking individuals, schools, markets, government institutions, and places of worship, including IEDs, VBIEDs, suicide bombings, targeted assassinations, and rocket-propelled grenades”.

The terrorist organisations also targeted ordinary civilians, community leaders, security forces, law enforcement agents, journalists and school-going children, killing and injuring many in large numbers in the year 2018, the report said adding, that the religious minorities faced significant threats from the terror groups.

Pakistan continues to endorse them, while according to the law of the land terror financing is a criminal offence in accordance with its Anti-terrorism Act, the implementation remains uneven. Also, Pakistan is adamant in supporting and helping world’s most ferocious terror outfits of the world to flourish on its soil drawing criticism from across the world.