Terrorists like Hafiz Saeed, mastermind of 2008 Mumbai attacks, live in Pakistan without impunity.
The US State Department's labelling of Pakistan among the nations and regions
providing "safe havens" to terrorists was not a strong enough reprimand and the country deserves sharper castigation, American Congressman Ted Poe has said.
''The 2016 Country Reports on Terrorism released today by the State Department unfortunately amounts to a continuation of the Department's misguided Pakistan policy. Despite calling out Pakistan for its persistent support for terrorism and failure to take any significant action against terrorists like the Taliban and the Haqqani Network, the State Department continues to call Pakistan 'an important counterterrorism partner.' This is not only a misguided policy, it is has proven to be a complete failure in advancing US national security interests. Continuing to do the same thing while expecting different results is the definition of insanity. It's time we brought back some common sense to our foreign policy," Mr Poe said.
Mr Poe, a Republican, had along with Democrat Rick Nolan in June
introduced a Bill in the US Congress for revoking Pakistan's Major Non-NATO Ally or MNNA status and make "a clean break" from the country for "harbouring terrorists".
Political sentiment in the US has been increasingly critical of Pakistan in recent months. US President Donald Trump's National Security Advisor HR McMaster and Defence Secretary General James Mattis have spoken publicly against Pakistan's complicity in recent weeks. Earlier this year, US lawmakers refused a subsidise sale of F-17s to Pakistan and last month a bill to tighten restrictions on US military aid to Pakistan was passed.
In the annual report mandated by the Congress, the State Department yesterday said that terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed continued to operate, train, organise and fundraise inside Pakistan in 2016.
India, it said, continued to experience attacks, from "Pakistan-based terrorists".
"The segments in South and Central Asia in the US State Department's Country Reports on Terrorism 2016 vindicate India's long-standing position on the menace of cross-border terrorism in our region," government sources told NDTV responding to the report.