In the wake of the terrorist attack on an Army base in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir, that killed 18 soldiers, a new bill moved in the U.S House of Representatives prods the administration to designate Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism.
The Republicans Ted Poe from Texas, the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism and Dana Rohrabacher from California sponsored the bill.
The ‘‘Pakistan State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Act of 2016” calls on the U.S. administration to provide a report on whether or not Pakistan qualifies as such under various U.S. Laws.
According to the bill, it lists Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) involvement in supporting terrorism in Afghanistan and quotes the Department of State’s 2016 Country Reports on Terrorism that “Pakistan has not taken sufficient action against groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), which continued to cooperate, train, organize, and fundraise in Pakistan.”
“Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, al-Qaeda leaders and the Afghan Taliban fled Afghanistan to Pakistan and settled in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). (It was) subsequently revealed that Pakistan’s ISI facilitated al-Qaeda’s movement of fighters to and from Afghanistan as well as the terrorist organisation’s purchase of weapons,” the bill says.
“The founder and leader of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, was found and killed in the Pakistani military town of Abbottabad in 2011. The Government of Pakistan subsequently condemned the raid that killed the terrorist leader and continues to imprison Dr. Shakil Afridi, the Pakistani doctor who played an instrumental role in identifying Osama bin Laden’s hiding place,” the bill says.
The bill also cites a 2012 NATO report that indicated that the Afghan Taliban is directly assisted by the Pakistani security services and noted that ‘‘Pakistan’s manipulation of the Taliban senior leadership continues [unabated]’’. “NATO report also suggested that Pakistan is aware of the locations of senior Taliban leaders, including one who maintained a residence in the immediate vicinity of the ISI headquarters in Islamabad.”
Also Read: Indian-Americans to US: Designate Pak as terror sponsor state
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