The State Department said that Pakistan is one of the countries on the list of terrorist havens.
Washington:
Pakistan took “modest steps” in 2019 to fight terrorist financing and prevent militant groups focused on India from carrying out large-scale attacks after the Pulwama attack in February, but it remained ” refuge “for regional terrorist groups, said the United States. Wednesday.
The suspension of U.S. aid to Pakistan, announced by President Donald Trump in January 2018, remained in effect throughout 2019, the State Department said.
“Pakistan took modest steps in 2019 to fight terrorist financing and prevent militant groups focused on India from carrying out large-scale attacks after the February attack on a security convoy in the Indian state from Jammu and Kashmir linked to Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), “he said.
In its 2019 congressional-mandated annual report on terrorism, the State Department said that Pakistan had taken action against certain targeted groups from outside, including the indictment of the founder of Lashkar e-Taiba (LeT) , Hafiz Saeed, and associates in three separate terrorist financing cases.
“However, Pakistan has remained a safe haven for other regional terrorist groups,” said the State Department.
It has enabled groups targeting Afghanistan, including the Afghan Taliban and the affiliated Haqqani network (HQN), as well as groups targeting India, including LeT and its front-affiliated organizations, and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), to operate from its territory, says the report.
“He took no action against other known terrorists such as the founder of JeM and the UN-designated terrorist Masood Azhar and the 2008 attack on Mumbai ‘against the project manager’ ‘Sajid Mir, who both would have remained free in Pakistan, “said the State Department. .
Pakistan has, however, made positive contributions to the peace process in Afghanistan, including by encouraging the reduction of violence by the Taliban. Pakistan has made progress towards meeting the requirements of the FATF action plan, allowing it to avoid being blacklisted, but did not complete all elements of the action plan in 2019, did he declare.
Although al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan has been severely degraded, key figures among the world‘s leading leaders, as well as its regional affiliate al-Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent (AQIS), have continued to operate from remote sites in the region that have historically served as refuges, he says.
Pakistan is one of the countries on the list of terrorist havens. Although Pakistan’s national plan of action calls for “ensuring that no armed militia is allowed to operate in the country”, several terrorist groups that focus on attacks outside the country have continued to operate from Pakistani soil in 2019, including the Haqqani network, Lashkar -e-Taiba, and Jaish-e-Mohammed, he said.
“The government and the military have acted inconsistently with regard to terrorist havens throughout the country. The authorities have not taken sufficient measures to prevent certain terrorist groups and individuals from operating openly in the country”, said the State Department.
According to the report, in January 2018, the United States government suspended most of its security assistance to Pakistan due to the government’s inability to adequately respond to the threat posed by militant and terrorist groups operating in the Pakistani soil.
“This suspension remained in effect throughout 2019,” said the report.
<< However, a recalibration of our civil assistance portfolio was implemented in 2019 in order to target a more limited set of priority areas: interpersonal exchanges, cooperation between law enforcement and the fight against terrorism, stabilization of the Afghan-Pakistani border, promoting trade and economic growth, supporting civil society and helping to treat polio and other infectious diseases, "he said.
The report notes that in June 2018, the FATF placed Pakistan on its “gray list” and published an action plan calling on Pakistan to take specific measures by September 2019 to remedy the strategic shortcomings in its fight against the financing of terrorist efforts.
“The FATF expressed serious concern at its plenary in October 2019 regarding Pakistan’s persistent shortcomings, but noted that it has made progress and extended the timeframe for full implementation of the action plan until February 2020 “, he said.
In 2018, Pakistan was designated as a “Country of Special Concern” (CPC) under the 1998 Religious Freedom in the World Act. It was renamed CPC in 2019, according to the press release.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
