Another terror attack on India will be ‘extremely problematic’, says US warning Pakistan to take stern call on terrorism

Washington, March 21: Coming down heavily on Pakistan and asking it to take concrete, irreversible action against terrorists, the United States warned warning the country that another terror attack on India will prove to be "extremely problematic". The United States has asked Pakistan to take sustained, verifiable and irreversible action against the perpetrators of terrorism.

 

A senior administration official while addressing the media said, “We need to see Pakistan taking concrete and sustained action to reign in the terrorist groups, mainly the Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Lashkar-e-Taiba in order to ensure that we don't have re-escalation (of tension) in the region.” Adding further, he said, "And, if there's any additional terrorist attack without Pakistan having made a sustained, sincere effort against these groups, it would be extremely problematic for Pakistan and it would cause re-escalation of tensions, which is dangerous for both countries".

In the recent days, the official said Pakistan has taken some "initial" actions. They have frozen the assets of some terrorist groups and made some arrests. They have taken administrative control of some of the JeM facilities. In a stern call for action, the officer stated, "But we clearly need to see more. We need to see irreversible action because in the past, what we've seen is they made some arrests and then a few months later, they released these individuals. The terrorist leaders are sometimes still allowed to travel around the country, hold rallies".

Observing that Pakistan has economic concerns as well, the official said the Financial Action Tasks Force (FATF) is one area which demonstrates the need for them to take these actions against terror groups. "Otherwise, they're at risk within the system and the FATF to be grey-listed," the official said.

Pakistan needs to decide if it wants to be viewed as a responsible international player and have access to all the financial mechanisms that are available or is it going to continue to fail to take the steps necessary against these terrorist groups and see itself further isolated. "The choice is Pakistan's," the senior administration official asserted.

While the situation between the two South Asian neighbours has de-escalated, the two armies are still on high alert and that concerns the US. The Trump Administration, the official said, has taken a sort of a "zero tolerance policy" on the issue of safe havens to terrorists. "The terror terrorist attack on February 14th on India was a demonstration that Pakistan's continuing provision of sanctuary for any terrorist group is not acceptable," the official said. During the height of the crisis from February 26-28, the United States was in continuous contact with Indian and Pakistani officials, both on the ground in New Delhi and Islamabad.

The United States has also reached out to influential countries to have them help deescalate the situation, the senior administration official said. Some of these countries are China, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Japan and Australia.