According to a US Congressional report, Pakistan is home to at least 12 groups designated as foreign-based terrorists by the US and 5 of them are India-centric.
The report released by the bipartisan research wing of US Congress on the eve of the historic Quad summit hosted by US President Joe Biden at the White House last week said these groups are categorised into five groups: global oriented, Afghanistan oriented, India- and Kashmir-oriented, domestically oriented, and Sectarian (anti-Shia).
US officials, in their report, said Pakistan is the base of operations or target for many armed and non-state militant groups, some of which have existed since the 1980s.
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET), formed in the late 1980s, was designated as a foreign terrorist organisation (FTO) in 2001. It was responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks and other high-profile attacks, said the report.
Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM), founded by Masood Azhar in 2000, was designated as an FTO in 2001. It was responsible for the 2001 parliament attacks and many other attacks, said the report.
Harakat-ul Jihad Islami (HUJI) was formed to fight the Soviet Army in 1980 in Afghanistan, redirected its efforts towards India after 1989. It was designated as an FTO in 2001.
Hizb-ul Mujahideen, the militant wing of Pakistan’s largest Islamist political party, was formed in 1989 and is one of the largest and oldest militant groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir. It was designated as an FTO in 2017.
The CRS said according to the US State Department’s Country Reports on Terrorism 2019, Pakistan has “continued to serve as a safe haven for certain regionally focused terrorist groups,” and has “allowed groups targeting Afghanistan … as well as groups targeting India …to operate from its territory.” The department also noted that Pakistan took modest steps to counter-terrorism financing and “restrain” some India-focused militant groups following an early 2019 terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir.
It assessed, however, that “Islamabad has yet to take decisive actions against India- and Afghanistan-focused militants,” and that “progress on the most difficult aspects of its 2015 National Action Plan to counter terrorism remains unfulfilled—specifically its pledge to dismantle all terrorist organisations without delay and discrimination.”
Other terrorist groups inside Pakistan are Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent(AQIS), Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISKP or IS-K); the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani network, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), Jundallah (aka Jaysh al-Adl), Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LEJ).
