‘PAKISTAN HAS TO RESTRICT THE ACTIVITIES OF LeT, JeM’

Pakistan foreign minister Khawaja Asif has acknowledged the need to restrict the activities of terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-eMohammed so that the country can tell the world community that it has put its “house in order”.

Asif made the remarks on Geo News while reacting to the Brics declaration that bracketed LeT and JeM with Islamic State and al-Qaida, and described them as a threat to regional security.

“We must make a clean break from our past,” he said, referring to the way in which militant groups got a boost after Pakistan joined US-led efforts against Soviet occupation forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

“Within our country, we should impose some restrictions on the activities of the JeM and LeT so that we can tell the world we have set our house in order.”

Asif tacitly referred to action by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force that forced Pakistan to place LeT founder Hafiz Saeed under house arrest.

He said Pakistan also needs to question whether it had fully implemented its National Action Plan on terrorism framed after a Taliban attack on a Peshawar school in 2014 killed nearly 150 people.

The civilian and military leadership were on the same page on the need to act against terror groups, he said. But he added, “As long as they (terror groups) are out in the public, others won’t believe us.”

ASIF INDICATED PAKISTAN COULD NO LONGER AFFORD TO “TEST” ALLIES LIKE CHINA ON TERRORISM AS THERE HAVE BEEN CHANGES IN DEALING WITH THE MENACE.