U.S. wants to scapegoat Pakistan for their failures in Afghanistan: Pak Senator

ANI  |  Washington D.C. [United States] 

With the U.S. identifying as one of the "terrorist safe havens", Senator Mushahid Hussain has accused the State Department of wanting to scapegoat for their failures in

Citing the U.S. State Department report on 2016, Hussain said there has been an increasing international pressure since earlier this month on battling terror in the country and within the South-east Asian region.

The Senator made these remarks during a public conversation programme titled "Media Diplomacy: Challenging the Indo-Pak Narrative" at the Atlantic Council in D.C. on Monday.

Former broadcasting & information minister of Manish Tiwari was also present at the event.

The Donald Trump administration has retained Pakistan's name in its list of nations and regions providing "safe havens" to terrorists.

In its annual 'Country Report on Terrorism', as mandated by the Congress, the State Department said that (LeT) and (JeM) continue to operate, train, organise and fundraise inside Islamabad and Pakistani military and security forces undertook operations against groups that conducted attacks within such as Tehrik-eTaliban

"did not take substantial action against the Afghan Taliban or Haqqani, or substantially limit their ability to threaten US interests in Afghanistan, although supported efforts to bring both groups into an Afghan-led peace process," the State Department said.

"did not take sufficient action against other externally focused groups, such as (LeT) and (JeM) in 2016, which continued to operate, train, organise, and fundraise in Pakistan," it added.

Country Reports on in 2015 as well listed as a safe haven for terrorist groups that includes Haqqani Network that hides in or operate from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, a mountainous region along Pakistan's northwest border with

The National Action Plan (NAP) calls upon the government to "ensure that no armed militias are allowed to function in the country," although claims about the NAP's uneven implementation was a frequent feature in Pakistani media. As in 2014, launched military operations to eradicate terrorist safe havens, although their impact on all terrorist groups was uneven.

Some UN-designated terrorist groups, such as Lashkar e-Tayyiba (LeT) affiliates Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation, were able to fundraise and hold rallies in

LeT/JuD leader, Hafiz Saeed, who is also a UN-designated terrorist, was able to make frequent public appearances in support of the organization's objectives, which were covered by the Pakistani media, for much of the year, the report had said.

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