US wants to make us scapegoat for their failure: Pak Senator

With the US identifying Pakistan as one of the “terrorist safe havens”, Pakistan Senator Mushahid Hussain has accused the State Department of wanting to make Pakistan scapegoat for their failures in Afghanistan.

Citing the US State Department report on Terrorism 2016, Hussain said there has been an increasing international pressure since earlier this month on battling terror in the country and within the Southeast Asian region.

The Senator made these remarks during a public conversation programme titled “Media Diplomacy: Challenging the Indo-Pak Narrative” at the Atlantic Council in Washington D.C. on Monday.

Former broadcasting & information minister of India Manish Tiwari was also present at the event.

The Donald Trump administration has retained Pakistan's name in its list of nations and regions providing "safe havens" to terrorists.

In its annual 'Country Report on Terrorism', as mandated by the Congress, the State Department said that Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) continue to operate, train, organise and fundraise inside Islamabad and Pakistani military and security forces undertook operations against groups that conducted attacks within Pakistan such as Tehrik-eTaliban Pakistan.

"Pakistan did not take substantial action against the Afghan Taliban or Haqqani, or substantially limit their ability to threaten US interests in Afghanistan, although Pakistan supported efforts to bring both groups into an Afghan-led peace process," the State Department said.

Citing the US State Department report on terrorism, Pak Senator said there has been an increasing international pressure since earlier this month on battling terror in the country