US State Dept nails Pak as terror sponsor

New Delhi: The US State Department has released its country reports on ‘Terrorism 2020’, in which it slammed Pakistan, saying it has made limited progress to counter-terrorism.

Fulminating against Pakistan, the State Department said unequivocally that it has not taken steps to prosecute terrorist leaders such as Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) founder Masood Azhar and Lashkar-e-Toiba’s (LeT) Sajid Mir, the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

The report added that groups targeting Afghanistan — including the Afghan Taliban and affiliated Haqqani Network, as well as groups targeting India, including LeT and its affiliated front organisations, and JeM — continued to operate from Pakistani territory.

The report said, “Pakistan made additional progress in 2020 toward completing its Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Action Plan, but did not complete all Action Plan items, and remained on the FATF ‘grey list’,” and read further, ” The government and military acted inconsistently with respect to terrorist safe havens throughout the country. Authorities did not take sufficient action to dismantle certain terrorist groups.”IANS