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| Pakistan is safe haven for terrorists | | 'Uneven' is crackdown on banned groups: US | |
BL KAK
NEW DELHI, May 2
Pakistan remains "a major source of Islamic extremism and a safe haven" for some top terrorist leaders. This disclosure is contained in the latest official document issued by Washington. Titled 'US State Department's Country Reports on Terrorism 2006', the document says that the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Mohammed are politically aligned with the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party led by Maulana Fazlur Rehman, and operate primarily in Indian Kashmir.
A copy of the document, which was released in Washington, is curently being studied by the government of India. The US State Department has designated Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami, Hizbul Mujahideen and Jamaatul Mujahideen as “groups of concern”.
According to the report, Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) have been a safe haven for Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. “Despite Pakistan’s efforts to eliminate threats and establish effective governance in FATA, these tribal areas continued to be terrorist safe havens and sources of instability for Pakistan and its neighbours”, says the report.
Pakistan maintains 80,000 Frontier Corps and Army troops in FATA, but has been unable to exert control over the area, says the report. The US is helping Pakistan train the FC so it becomes more effective in its role. The planned closure of four refugee camps near the Pak-Afghan border would also help. “The failure of the tribal leaders in FATA to fulfil their promises to the government under the terms of the North Waziristan agreement signed in September, failed to stem insurgent infiltration into Afghanistan”, it says.
The report says that though President Gen Pervez Musharraf “remained a forceful advocate for his vision of ‘enlightened moderation’, calling on Pakistanis to reject extremism and terrorist violence”, the government’s crackdown on banned organisations, hate material, and incitement by religious leaders continued “unevenly”. The report estimates that 900 Pakistanis lost their lives in more than 650 terror attacks in 2006, with another 1,500 people seriously injured. These attacks came from Al Qaeda and its supporters, as well as violence stemming from Sunni-Shia sectarian strife and militant sub-nationalists in Balochistan.
The report notes that Pakistani security services cooperated with the US and other nations to foil the August London Heathrow bomb plot, and Pakistan’s leaders took steps to prevent support to Kashmiri militancy and denounced acts of terrorism in India.
The report also said the Bush administration had designated Islamic groups Harkat-ul- Mujahideen (HUM), Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)– all said to be based in Pakistan--as “foreign terrorist organisations,” prohibiting US residents from extending material support to them. This also denies individuals representing these groups from entering or doing business in the US. In all 42 groups, active in different parts of the world, figure in the US terrorist list.
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