CHANDIGARH: Pakistan continues to shelter terrorist organisations on its soil, including groups targeting India, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir, according to a report titled ‘Terrorist and Other Militant Groups in Pakistan’ tabled in the US Congress.
According to the report of Congressional Research Service publihsed on March 25, the report states that 12 of the 15 listed groups are designated as Foreign Terrorist Organisations under US law are driven by Islamist extremist ideology.
The report classifies these groups into five categories: India and Kashmir-oriented, globally oriented, Afghanistan-oriented, domestically oriented and sectarian anti-Shia. It identifies groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Harakat-ul-Jihad al-Islami, Harakat-ul-Mujahideen and Hizbul Mujahideen as operating from Pakistani territory.
"Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) was formed in 1989— reportedly as the militant wing of Pakistan’s largest Islamist political party—and designated as an FTO in 2017. It is one of the largest and oldest militant groups operating in Indian administered Kashmir. HM’s cadre of up to 1,500 is composed primarily of ethnic Kashmiris who seek independence for Kashmir or annexation of Indian administered Kashmir into Pakistan," the report added.
The reprot further stated that Harakat ul-Mujahideen, despite being designated as an FTO in 1997, it operates mainly from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and some Pakistani cities, and was responsible for the 1999 hijacking of IC 814.
"Led by now incarcerated Hafiz Saeed and based in Pakistan’s Punjab province and in Pakistan-administered (Azad) Kashmir, it has changed its name to Jamaat-ud-Dawa to circumvent sanctions. With several thousand fighters, LET was responsible for the mass-scale 2008 terrorist assault on Mumbai, India, as well as several other high-profile attacks,’’ the report said.
The report also states that Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) was founded in 2000 by Kashmiri militant leader Masood Azhar and designated as an FTO in 2001. Along with LET, it was responsible for a 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament, among numerous others. Based in both Punjab and in Azad Kashmir, JEM’s roughly 500 armed supporters operate in India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan while seeking annexation of Indian-administered Kashmir into Pakistan. JEM has openly declared war on the United States.
Among globally oriented groups, the report names Al-Qaeda, Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent and Islamic State Khorasan Province. Afghanistan-focused groups include the Taliban and the Haqqani Network.
The report says Pakistan has been identified as a base of operations or target for several militant groups since the 1980s. It notes that a 2014 National Action Plan aimed to prevent armed militias, but operations have failed to eliminate them.
Citing the US State Department’s Country Reports on Terrorism 2023, it states, "Pakistan took some steps to curtail the activities of terrorist groups” in 2023.
"Pakistan took some steps to curtail the activities of terrorist groups” in 2023. It also reported that some madrassas (religious schools) taught doctrines that could lead to greater acceptance of violent extremist ideology. Although major cities such as Islamabad and Lahore have been targeted, the great majority of terrorism-related fatalities in 2025 were concentrated in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP, 68 per cent) and Balochistan provinces (28 per cent), especially near the border with Afghanistan.’’
In 2018, the Financial Action Task Force placed Pakistan on its grey list for deficiencies in countering money laundering and terror financing. It was removed in late 2022 after completing required action items.
The report states that Pakistan has seen a rise in terrorism in recent years, with deaths increasing from 365 in 2019 to 4,001 in 2025, the highest in 11 years.
The Congressional Research Service is an independent research arm of the US Congress, and its reports are not official positions of the Congress.