TIL Desk/World/Washington/ The US has said the Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba militant groups continue to pose a regional threat and that Pakistan did not adequately address America’s concerns on terrorism in 2017. Although al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan has been seriously degraded, remnants of its global leadership, as well as its regional affiliate al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), continued to operate from remote locations in the region that historically have been exploited as safe havens, the US State Department said in its annual Country Reports on Terrorism for the year 2017.
“Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba continued to pose a regional threat in the subcontinent,” it said on Wednesday. The report notes that from August to December 2017, the Trump administration placed a pause on spending new Foreign Military Financing for Pakistan, holding these funds until Pakistan addressed key US concerns, including the threat posed by the Haqqani Network and other terrorist groups that enjoyed safe haven in Pakistan.
“Pakistan did not adequately address these concerns in 2017,” said 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 focused on attacks outside of the country continued to operate from Pakistani soil in 2017, it said. These groups included the Haqqani Network, besides the LeT and JeM which are directed against India.
