TIL Desk/World/Washington/The United States has suspended more than $1.15 billion (about Rs 7,400 crore) security assistance to Pakistan, accusing Islamabad of harbouring terror groups like the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network within its border and showing unwillingness to take ‘decisive actions’ against them.
The freezing of all security assistance to Pakistan comes days after President Donald Trump in a new year tweet accused Pakistan of giving nothing to the US but ‘lies and deceit’ and providing ‘safe haven’ to terrorists in return for $33 billion (about Rs 2,14,500 crore) aid over the last 15 years.
Prominent among the suspended amount include $255 million (about Rs 1,600 crore) in Foreign Military Funding for the fiscal year 2016 as mandated by the Congress. In addition, the Department of Defense has suspended the entire $900 million (about Rs 6,000 crore) of the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) money to Pakistan for the fiscal year 2017.
“Today we can confirm that we are suspending national security assistance only, to Pakistan at this time until the Pakistani government takes decisive action against groups, including the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network. We consider them to be destabilising the region and also targeting US personnel. The US will suspend that kind of security assistance to Pakistan,” State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters.
