A report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) says that Pakistan is a base for at least 12 ‘foreign terrorist organisations’ of which five are India-focused.
The Congressional report on terrorism says that Pakistan has been a base for armed and non-State militant groups, some of which have existed since the 1980s.
Indian news agency PTI reported that the bipartisan research wing of US Congress has also categorised the terror groups into five types–operating globally, India-centric, Afghanistan focussed, domestic and Sectarian (largely anti-Shia).
Quoting the US State Department’s Country Reports on Terrorism 2019, CRS said that Pakistan has “continued to serve as a safe haven for certain regionally focused terrorist groups,” and has “allowed groups targeting Afghanistan… as well as groups targeting India… to operate from its territory”.
Hafiz Saeed of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (Photo: IANS)
The Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET) was formed in the late 1980s in Pakistan and designated as a foreign terrorist organisation in 2001. “LET was responsible for major 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India, as well as numerous other high-profile attacks”, the CRS said.
Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) was founded in 2000 by Kashmiri militant leader Masood Azhar and was designated as a foreign terrorist organisation in 2001. Along with LET, it was responsible for the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament, along with other attacks, the CRS said.
Maulana Masood Azhar of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (Photo: IANS)
Harakat-ul Jihad Islami (HUJI) was formed in 1980 in Afghanistan to fight the Soviet army and was designated as a foreign terrorist organisation in 2010. After 1989, it redirected its efforts toward India, even as it continued to supply fighters to the Taliban in Afghanistan.
“With an unknown strength, HUJI today operates in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, and seeks annexation of Kashmir into Pakistan,” the report says, adding that it operates mainly from Pak-Occupied Kashmir and some Pakistani cities.
Pakistan terror factories have successfully exported terrorists to Bangladesh (Photo: IANS)
The Hizb-ul Mujahideen (HM) was formed in 1989 as the militant wing of Pakistan’s largest Islamist political party—and designated as a foreign terror organisation in 2017. It is one of the largest and oldest militant groups operating in J&K.
Among the numerous global terror groups in Pakistan is the Al Qaeda, which has been working from tribal areas, the port city of Karachi and also from Afghanistan. Since 2011, it has been led by Ayman al-Zawahiri and is in touch with other terror groups in Pakistan.
The other terror groups in Pakistan include Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISKP), the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani Network, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), Jundallah (aka Jaysh al-Adl), Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LEJ).
The Congressional report added that though Pakistan has taken “modest steps” to “restrain” some India-focused militant groups, “Islamabad has yet to take decisive actions against India-and Afghanistan-focused militants”.
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