‘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-e-Mohammed so that the country can tell the world community that it has put its “house in order”.
Asif made the remarks during an appearance on Geo News, reacting to the Brics declaration that bracketed Pakistan-based 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 had 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.
Asif also said Pakistan needs to question whether it had fully implemented its National Action Plan on terrorism that was framed after a Taliban attack on an army-run in Peshawar 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 ALSO INDICATED PAKISTAN COULD NO LONGER AFFORD TO “TEST” CHINA ON TERRORISM AS HAVE BEEN CHANGES AROUND THE WORLD IN DEALING WITH THE MENACE.