US sees gaps in Pak’s fight against terror funding

Islamabad, Nov 3 (SocialNews.XYZ) Pakistan has implemented international standards to combat money laundering and terror financing and has also criminalised such acts, "but implementation remains uneven", according the US State Departments report on terrorism.

The Congress-mandated report, released on Friday, represents official US assessment of the state of global terrorism during last year and includes country reviews, Dawn news reported.

It noted that Pakistan being a member of the Asia/Pacific Group (APG) on Money Laundering - a regional body affiliated with the international watchdog, Financial Action Task Force (FATF) - has made serious efforts to meet the standards set by the global watchdogs.

However, the government failed to significantly limit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) from "raising money, recruiting, and training in Pakistan - and allowed candidates overtly affiliated with LeT front organisations to contest the July general elections", the report said.

It also complained that the Pakistani government voiced support for political reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Afghan Taliban, but "it did not restrict the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network (HQN) from operating in Pakistan-based safe havens and threatening the US and Afghan forces in Afghanistan".

The State Department pointed out that Pakistan experienced numerous terrorist attacks in 2018.

Militant and terrorist groups targeted civilians, journalists, community leaders, security forces, law enforcement personnel and schools, killing and injuring hundreds, it added.

Source: IANS