Time for US to rein in wayward Pakistan

For far too long the United States has dragged its feet over Indian complaints that Pakistan has been providing safe havens to terrorists. Umpteen examples have been cited by India of being at the receiving end but the Americans have paid only lip service to the issue, concerned only with how much and which brand of terrorism affects the US. Now, there is testimony at hand which it cannot ignore as a country that professes to be a champion against global terror. A State Department annual report on terrorism has, by naming Pakistan among the countries and regions providing ‘safe havens’ to terrorists confirmed that terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed continued to operate, train, organise and fundraise inside Pakistan in 2016. Combined with the fact that the US government had named Pakistan’s Syed Salahuddin as a global terrorist only a few days ago when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on a visit to the US, there ostensibly is a fit case for taking punitive action against Pakistan. This is indeed a time for action not rhetoric. The Americans must realize that their government can ill afford to look the other way. Today it is India, tomorrow it can be the US that could be at the receiving end of mindless Pakistan-based terror groups.

The Americans have been obsessed with the activities of the Haqqani terror network in Pakistan to the exclusion of other terror outfits that have India as their target. The State Department report identified that “although LeT is banned in Pakistan, its wings Jamaat- ud-Dawa (JuD) and Falah-iInsaniat Foundation (FiF) were able to openly engage in fundraising, including in the capital.” That this has come from their own sources should convince them that urgent action is needed. There was a time when US troops were positioned in neighbouring Afghanistan in large numbers and Pakistani support was deemed paramount to US interests. Now, however, with US presence drastically reduced, the Americans must crack down on the Pakistani ‘safe havens’ without loss of time. “LeT’s chief Hafiz Saeed (a UN-designated terrorist) continued to address large rallies, although in February 2017, Pakistan proscribed him under relevant provisions of Schedule Four of the Anti-Terrorism Act, thus severely restricting his freedom of movement,” the report noted. Salahuddin too is moving about inciting terror with impunity, unmindful of the US’ declaration of him as a ‘global terrorist.’ India and the US must act in unison to stem terror just as Pakistan and China are working in tandem to stoke the embers of terror.