The US has said the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) continued to be a threat to India. It also raised concern over Pakistan allowing candidates affiliated with their front organisations to contest the country’s last general elections.
The US State Department’s ‘Country Reports on Terrorism 2018’, published on Friday, said the Pakistani authorities have failed to uniformly implement the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Action Plan on money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regimes and the UN sanctions related to designated entities and individuals.
As such, terror group LeT and its affiliates continued to make use of economic resources and raise funds, it noted. “Pakistan criminalises terrorist financing through the Anti-Terrorism Act, but implementation remains uneven. In June 2018, the FATF placed Pakistan on its ‘grey list’ for deficiencies across its anti-money laundering and financial transaction regimes, specifically citing concerns over Pakistan’s failure to fully implement the UN Security Council ISIL and al-Qa’ida sanctions,” the report said.
“Regionally focused terrorist groups also remained a threat in 2018. Pakistan-based LeT which was responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks and JeM, maintain the capability and intent to attack Indian and Afghan targets.”
It said, in February (2018), operatives reportedly affiliated with JeM attacked an Indian Army camp in J&K, killing seven and either organizations have been responsible for a series of terror attacks in India that include attack on Parliament.
Although Islamabad voiced support for political reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Afghan Taliban, it did not restrict the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network from operating and threatening the US and Afghan forces, the report said.