US report targets Pakistan for letting Lashkar-e-Taiba thrive

In a stinging indictment of Pakistan’s dithering over taking action against anti-India terror outfits, a recent US State Department report has said that India remains one of the most persistent terror targets in the South Asian region, and underlined that Islamabad has not taken action against Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), suspected to be the mastermind and engineer of 26/11 Mumbai mayhem.

“The Pakistani military undertook operations against groups that conducted attacks within Pakistan such as TTP (Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan), but did not take action against other groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, which continued to operate, train, rally, propagandise and fundraise in Pakistan,” the State Department, in its annual report on terrorism for the year 2014, has said.

In a set of conclusions that vindicate India’s stand, the report underlined that the Pakistani military has targeted the actions of other terrorist groups such as Afghan Taliban and Haqqani network, but their leaderships continue to find safe haven in Pakistan, as none of the country’s military operations has directly targeted them.

On September 3, 2014, Al-Qaeda group announced the establishment of a new branch in the Indian subcontinent. India remains a target of terrorist attacks, as well as operations launched by Maoist insurgents and domestic and transnational groups.

Over the year, India and the US have forged substantive counter-terror cooperation, which received an added impetus during the meetings between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama this year.

Indian intelligence agencies have been monitoring threats from the ISIS militant groups, as a small number of Indian nationals have joined the Islamic State. Recently, the militant group announced t it was opening its new branch in India.

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