Pakistan home to 12 terror groups: US Congress report

At least 12 groups designated as “foreign terrorist organizations” by the US are based in Pakistan. They include five that are India-centric, according to the latest US Congressional report on terrorism. The report, ‘Terrorist and Other Militant Groups in Pakistan’, released by the research wing of the US Congress, said the Pakistan-based groups could be broadly categorized into five types - globally oriented, Afghanistan-oriented, India and Kashmir-oriented, domestically oriented and sectarian (anti-Shia). The prominent India-centric groups include Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Harakat-ul Jihad Islami and Hizb-ul Mujahideen.

Pakistan’s neighbours, including Afghanistan and India, and the US have long accused Islamabad of providing safe haven and support to militants. The State Department also noted “modest steps” taken by Pakistan to counter terror financing and to “restrain” some India-focused militant groups following an early 2019 terrorist attack in J&K. Financial Action Task Force (FATF) returned Pakistan to the “grey list” in 2018 after the country was found to have “strategic deficiencies” in countering money laundering and terror financing. Pakistan completed 26 out of 27 assigned “action plan items” but the terror financing watchdog left the status unchanged.

Pakistan has been accused of proving assistance to the Taliban that retook the power in Afghanistan last month. Afghan Taliban were named by the US as Special Designated Global Terrorists in 2002. During the two decades of US occupation in Afghanistan, the leadership of the Afghan Taliban was believed to operate mainly from the Balochistan provincial capital of Quetta, as well as in Karachi and Peshawar.