Pakistani military leaders extend their support to terrorist groups that attack India, noted Central and South Asia expert Husain Haqqani has said in a report. He also says that while the Pakistani Army has cracked down on terrorists attacking the country itself, it has done nothing to curb terrorists plotting attacks against and carrying them out in India.
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In the report, titled "A new US approach to Pakistan: Enforcing aid conditions without cutting ties," Haqqani and Lisa Curtis have said: "The new Trump Administration [in the US] must review its policies toward Pakistan in order to more effectively contain, and eventually eliminate, the terrorist threats that continue to emanate from the country."
They said this needs to be done to stop Afghanistan from "again turning into a global terrorist safe haven," and to prevent the "outbreak of an India-Pakistan military conflict that could potentially go nuclear." They added: "The activities and operations of diverse terror groups on and from Pakistani soil, and the government's failure to rein them in, threaten vital US national security interests in the region."
On Pakistan harbouring and supporting terrorists
Haqqani and Curtis said in the report that Pakistani military leaders "continue to support terrorist groups that attack India in an effort to keep it off balance and to draw international mediation into the dispute with India over Kashmir." This exposes how Pakistan has been using terrorists to keep the Kashmir issue alive.
They added: "Pakistan's seemingly unconstrained expansion of its nuclear arsenal, particularly the development of tactical nuclear weapons and extended–range missile systems, also remains a cause for concern, especially with regard to India."
Selective crackdown
Speaking on former Pakistani Army chief General Raheel Sharif, the co-authors said that he "cracked down on terrorists threatening the Pakistani state, but he did little to rein in those that attack in Afghanistan and India."
Haqqani and Curtis, however, were cautiously optimistic of the current Pakistani Army chief General Qamar Bajwa, saying that it was "too early to tell whether General Bajwa will follow through on any meaningful changes to Pakistan's terrorism policies."
