Pakistan fosters and shelters terror groups targeting India, US report reveals

The latest report tabled in the US Congress listed terror groups that are continue to operate in Pakistan. The report titled ‘Terrorist and Other Militant Groups in Pakistan’ was published on March 25, and the report states that 12 of the 15 are groups which are designated as Foreign Terrorist Organisations under US law, driven by Islamist extremist ideology. The report segregates these groups into five categories, i.e. India and Kashmir-oriented, globally oriented, Afghanistan-oriented, domestically oriented and sectarian anti-Shia. It mentions groups operating from Pakistan, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Harakat-ul-Jihad al-Islami, Harakat-ul-Mujahideen and Hizbul Mujahideen.“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 India's Kashmir," the report noted.

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 reportadded. On June 30, India's External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar was at the headquarters in New York, where he inaugurated an exhibition. It highlighted the toll of terrorist acts around the world, he said, addressing the event named ‘The Human Cost of Terrorism’. India had faced an act of terrorism that shook the country on April 22. The dastardly attack in Pahalgam claimed 26 lives and was traced to Pakistani-sponsored terrorism. Lashkar-e-Taiba's (LeT) offshoot, The Resistant Front (TRF) has claimed responsibility for the attack. The latter was mentioned in all Operation Sindoor briefings, an operation that was launched in retaliation for the horrific attack on Indian tourists.

The report further details that despite being designated as an FTO in 1997, Harakat ul-Mujahideen continues to operate mainly from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and other cities within the country, which 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-occupied 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.