U.S. blames Pakistan for going soft on Lashkar and Jaish

U.S. blames Pakistan for going soft on Lashkar and Jaish

The Country Reports on Terrorism

Context

• The State Department’s annual ‘Country Reports on Terrorism’ released identifies that the Indian leadership expressed resolve to redouble efforts, in cooperation with the United States and other like-minded countries, to bring to justice the perpetrators of terrorism.

The report on Pakistan

• The report pinpointed that Pakistan remained “an important counter-terrorism partner” last year, but it did not take sufficient action against groups that target India and Afghanistan.
• The Pakistani military and security forces carried out operations against groups that piloted attacks within Pakistan such as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.
• Pakistan did not take substantial action against the Afghan Taliban or Haqqani Network, or significantly limit their ability to threaten U.S. interests in Afghanistan.
• Although Pakistan supported efforts to bring both groups into an Afghan-led peace process.
• Pakistan did not take adequate action against other externally focused groups, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad in 2016, which continued to operate, train, organize, and fundraise in Pakistan.

The report on India – U.S. cooperation

• The report said India and the U.S. pledged to strengthen cooperation against terrorist threats from groups including al-Qaeda, the ISIS, the Jaish, the Lashkar and D-Company, including through greater collaboration on designations at the UN.
• The report said in 2016, U.S. and Indian officials exchanged terrorist threat information.