US questions Pakistan's contribution towards anti-terrorism activities

In its annual Country Reports on Terrorism 2016, the US has accused Pakistan of doing zilch against terrorists other than putting an embargo on media coverage of their activities.

"The Pakistan government supported political reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Afghan Taliban, but failed to take significant action to constrain the ability of the Afghan Taliban and HQN to operate from Pakistan-based safe havens and threaten U.S. and Afghan forces in Afghanistan," the report read.

"The government did not take any significant action against LeT or JeM, other than implementing an ongoing ban against media coverage of their activities. LeT and JeM continued to hold rallies, raise money, recruit, and train in Pakistan.

"The Pakistan government has not joined the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, although it designated ISIS as a terrorist organization in 2015,' it further added.

"Major terrorist groups focused on conducting terrorist attacks in Pakistan included the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Jamaat‑ul‑Ahrar (JuA), and the sectarian group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ). Islamic State’s Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) claimed several major attacks against Pakistani targets, likely conducted in collaboration with other terrorist groups," it said.

"Groups located in Pakistan, but focused on conducting attacks outside the country, included the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani Network (HQN), Lashkar e-Tayyiba (LeT), and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM)," the report read.

Earlier this month, the US accused Pakistan of betraying US' trust and referring them as 'Benedict Arnold ally'.

Benedict Arnold was a 18th century American general, who changed sides to the British and was hence branded as a traitor.

Chucking the old tradition, where the US helped Pakistan with funds to eliminate terror, the Congress said that now the US Secretary of Defence will have to certify that the latter is not using the money to fund terror organisations.

The new law came into force after the US Congress passed the National Defence Authorization Act for 2017.

Speaking about the same, Republican Congressman Ted Poe tweeted on Jul 14: "Today, Congress took a step forward to end Pakistan's betrayal of the US with the addition of an additional certification requirement."

In a statement, he said: "Today, the House-passed bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act that helps to rebuild our military, increases funding to close readiness gaps, and gives our troops their biggest pay raise in eight years."

Accusing Pakistan of funding terrorist organisations and destabilising Afghanistan, Poe said: "Pakistan is a Benedict Arnold ally who supports multiple terrorist organizations, inc. groups that Americans working to stabilize Afg."

"This bill included two of my amendments to strengthen border security and require that the Pentagon assess Pakistan's support for known terrorists before handing over US dollars to Islamabad,' he further added.