According to US State Department 2019 Country report on terrorism released on Wednesday, Pakistan continued to be a safe place for certain regionally-focused terrorist groups. It also allowed these groups to target Afghanistan and India.
The Afghan Taliban and affiliated Haqqani network, as well as LeT and its affiliated front organizations, and JeM, were reportedly allowed by Pakistan to operate from its territory.
The State Department's Country Reports on Terrorism said, "Islamabad is yet to take decisive actions against Indian and Afghanistan-focused militants."
The state department said that in 2018, President Donald Trump had announced the suspension of US aid to Pakistan and this decision remained in effect throughout 2019.
PAK harbors terrorist
The report said, "Pakistan took modest steps in 2019 to counter terror financing and restrain India-focused militant groups from conducting large-scale attacks following the February attack on a security convoy in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir linked to Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM)."
The allegation made by the state department was that Pakistan failed to act against other known terrorists such as JeM founder and UN-designated terrorist Masood Azhar and 2008 Mumbai attack 'project manager' Sajid Mir. They are reportedly roaming freely in Pakistan.
Pakistan was placed in 'gray list' by the Financial Action Task Force FATF in 2018. An action plan was also issued for Pakistan for taking specific steps by September 2019 to address strategic deficiencies in its combating the financing of terrorism efforts.
The report also stated that in October 2019 plenary, serious concerns were expressed by the FATF about Pakistan's shortcomings but noted it had made some progress and extended the deadline for full Action Plan implementation to February 2020.
Under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, Pakistan was designated as a 'Country of Particular Concern' (CPC) in 2018. It was re-designated as a CPC in 2019, the report said.
According to the report, India suffered terrorist attacks both in its northeastern region and in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, along with some parts of central India.
According to the report, Washington and New Delhi stepped up counter-terrorism cooperation as India unrelentingly applied sustained pressure to sense, interrupt, and degrade terrorist activities within its borders.
