With the threat of terrorism becoming geographically dispersed around the world, Pakistan continues being duplicitous on the use of terrorist groups as proxies in its geopolitical pursuits, a new media report said.
"Terrorist groups continued to operate from Pakistan. Groups targeting Afghanistan -- including the Afghan Taliban and affiliated Haqqani Network, as well as groups targeting India, including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and its affiliated front organizations, and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) -- continued to operate from Pakistani territory," the Singapore Post reported citing the US's Country Reports on Terrorism 2020.
It further reported that Pakistan made limited progress on "the most difficult aspects of its 2015 National Action Plan to counter-terrorism, specifically in its pledge to dismantle all terrorist organizations without delay or discrimination."
The report highlighted that Pakistan "did not take action against other known terrorists such as JeM founder and UN-designated terrorist Masood Azhar and 2008 Mumbai attack "project manager" Sajid Mir", both of whom are believed to remain free in Pakistan.
Citing media reports, The Singapore Post reported that Masood Azhar had written a column "Manzil Ki Taraf" in JeM's online magazine Al Noor congratulating the Afghan Taliban for its takeover of Kabul. He had also commented that the "defeat of America means it has lost the status of being the superpower in the world."
The US report also mentioned the release of terrorist Omar Sheikh, accused of murdering journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002. In December last year, the Sindh High Court had overturned the convictions of Omar Sheikh and three co-conspirators for the 2002 abduction and murder of Pearl and ordered their release.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan upheld this decision of the Sindh High Court. This incident once again showed Pakistan's flawed justice system and its impact on counter-terrorism investigations, The Singapore Post reported.
South-East Asia's news outlet further said Pakistan has never been sincere whenever it assured the global community that it would perform its counter-terrorism obligations. This Pakistani duplicity has been on display since the 9/11 attacks. To escape the international scrutiny of its terrorist ecosystem, Islamabad has only engaged in a cosmetic crackdown on this network.
This network, including terrorist groups, and madrassas were often temporarily shut, relocated to other places or asked to keep a low profile - which gave a false sense to the global community of a 'crackdown' and a decline in their activities. In reality, these groups and networks remained intact. After a short gap, these were reactivated. Now, with the return of the Taliban in Afghanistan, these madrasas are gearing up to scale their activities, demanding the implementation of Sharia in Pakistan, The Singapore Post reported.
( With inputs from ANI )
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