Pak 'failed to limit' terror outfits from fundraising, recruiting: US report

Washington: Pakistan has "failed to significantly limit" militant outfits like the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) from fundraising and recruiting while several terrorist groups that focus on attacks outside the country continued to operate from its soil in 2018, a damning US report has said.

The US State Department, in its Congressional mandated annual Country Reports on Terrorism for the year 2018, on Friday said even though the Pakistani government voiced support for political reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Taliban, it did not restrict the terror group and the Haqqani Network (HQN) from operating in Pakistan-based safe havens and threatening the US and Afghan forces in Afghanistan.

The (Pakistan) government failed to significantly limit Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad from raising money, recruiting and training in Pakistan and allowed candidates overtly affiliated with LeT front organisations to contest the July general elections, the US State Department said in the report. Although Pakistan's National Action Plan calls to ensure that no armed militias are allowed to function in the country, several terrorist groups that focus on attacks outside the country continued to operate from Pakistani soil in 2018, including the Haqqani Network, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Jaish-e-Mohammad, it said.

The report observed that the government and military acted inconsistently with respect to terrorist safe havens throughout the country.

"Authorities did not take sufficient action to stop certain terrorist groups and individuals from openly operating in the country, it said. Pakistan, it said, experienced significant terrorist threats in 2018, although the number of attacks and casualties have continued to decrease from previous years. The major terrorist groups that focused on conducting attacks in Pakistan included Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Jamaat-ulAhrar (JuA), Islamic State's Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), and the sectarian group Lashkar-eJhangvi al-Alami (LJA).

ISIS-K claimed several major attacks against Pakistani targets, some of which may have been conducted in collaboration with other terrorist groups. Separatist militant groups conducted terrorist attacks against governmental, non-governmental, and diplomatic targets in Balochistan and Sindh provinces, it said. pti