US slams Pakistan for providing ‘safe havens’ to terror groups

Washington, July 19 (IANS) The US has slammed Pakistan for failing to crackdown on terror groups operating from "safe havens" inside its territory, and said the Nawaz Sharif government did not take any action against the LeT and JeM, which continue to operate openly.

In its annual Country Report on Countering Terrorism, the US State Department said though the Pakistan government supported political reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Afghan Taliban, it "failed to take significant action to constrain the ability of the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani network to operate from Pakistan-based safe havens and threaten US and Afghan forces in Afghanistan.

It said the Pakistan government "did not take any significant action against Lashkar-e-Taiba or Jaish-e-Mohammed, other than implementing an ongoing ban against media coverage of their activities. LeT and JeM continued to hold rallies, raise money, recruit, and train in Pakistan," it said.

In its overview of the South Asian region, the report said that "Afghanistan, in particular, continued to experience aggressive and coordinated attacks by the Afghan Taliban, including the affiliated Haqqani Network (HQN) and other insurgent and terrorist groups. A number of these attacks were planned and launched from safe havens in Pakistan".

It said India continued to experience attacks, including by Maoist insurgents and Pakistan-based terrorists.

"Indian authorities continued to blame Pakistan for cross-border attacks in Jammu and Kashmir. In January, India experienced a terrorist attack against an Indian military facility in Pathankot, Punjab, which was blamed by authorities on JeM. Over the course of 2016, the Government of India sought to deepen counterterrorism cooperation and information sharing with the United States," it said.