Terror groups targeting India continue to operate from Pakistan: US report on terrorism

WASHINGTON: Terrorist groups targeting India continued to operate from Pakistan and Islamabad did not take action against other known terrorists, including JeM founder and UN-designated terrorist Masood Azhar and the 2008 Mumbai attack “project manager” Sajid Mir, who remain free in that country, according to a latest report on terrorism by the US State Department.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in the 2020 Country Reports on Terrorism issued on Thursday, said that regionally, terrorist groups continued to operate from Pakistan.

“Groups targeting Afghanistan — including the Afghan Taliban and affiliated Haqqani network (HQN), as well as groups targeting India, including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and its affiliated front organisations, and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) — continued to operate from Pakistani territory,” according to the report.

Pakistan did not take action against other known terrorists such as JeM founder and UN-designated terrorist Azhar and 2008 Mumbai attack “project manager” Mir, both of whom are believed to remain free in Pakistan, the report said.

In February and again in November, a Lahore antiterrorism court convicted Lashkar-e-Tayyiba founder Hafiz Saeed on multiple counts of terrorism financing and sentenced him to five years and six months in prison, the report noted.

It acknowledged that Pakistan made additional progress in 2020 towards completing its Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Action Plan, but did not complete all Action Plan items, and remained on the FATF “gray list.