The US has cautioned Pakistan that another militant attack on India will prove to be “extremely problematic” as it asked Islamabad to take more “concrete and sustained” actions to rein in groups including the JeM and the LeT.
Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after asuicide bomber of Pakistan-based group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) killed 40 CRPFpersonnel in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district on February 14.
India launched a counter-militancy operation in Balakotacross the Line of control. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated anddowned a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured its pilot, who was handed overto India on March 1.
Addressing reporters at the White House, a senior administrationofficial said: “We need to see Pakistan taking concrete and sustained action torein in the terrorist groups, mainly the Jaish-e-Mohammed and theLashkar-e-Taiba in order to ensure that we don’t have re-escalation (oftensions) in the region”.
“If there’s any additionalterrorist attack without Pakistan having made a sustained, sincere effortagainst these groups, it would be extremely problematic for Pakistan and itwould cause re-escalation of tensions, which is dangerous for both countries,”he said on the condition of anonymity.
Asked about the steps being taken by Pakistan in theaftermath of the Balakot air strike by Indian fighter jets, the official saidthat the US and the international community needed to see “irreversible andsustained actions against the terror groups”.
“It’s early to make a full assessment,” he said.
In the recent days, the official said Pakistan has takensome “initial” actions. They have frozen the assets of some militant groups andmade some arrests. They have taken administrative control of some of the JeMfacilities, he said.
“But we clearly need to see more. We need to see irreversibleaction because in the past, what we’ve seen is they made some arrests and thena few months later, they released these individuals. The terrorist leaders aresometimes still allowed to travel around the country, hold rallies,” theofficial said.
Reiterating that the US is looking for “irreversibleaction”, he said America is working with its international partners to increasepressure on Pakistan.
“Because it has been too long that these groups have beenable to operate,” he said.
Observing that Pakistan has economic concerns as well, theofficial said the Financial Action Tasks Force (FATF) is one area whichdemonstrates the need for them to take these actions against militant groups.
“Otherwise, they’re at risk within the system and the FATFto be grey-listed,” the official said.
Pakistan needs to decideif it wants to be viewed as a responsible international player and have accessto all the financial mechanisms that are available or is it going to continueto fail to take the steps necessary against these groups and see itself furtherisolated. “The choice is Pakistan’s,” the senior administration officialasserted.
While the situation between the two south Asian neighbourshas de-escalated, the two armies are still on high alert and that concerns theUS, the official said.
“So, we realise that if there, God forbid, would be anotherterrorist attack that you could quickly see the escalation in the situationonce again. So that’s why, we’re making clear that any additional militaryaction by either side runs an unacceptably high risk, for both countries andfor the region,” the official said.
The Trump administration, he said, has taken sort of a “zerotolerance policy on the issue of safe havens to terrorists”.
The United States has also reached out to influentialcountries to have them help deescalate the situation, the senior administrationofficial said.
Some of these countries are China, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Japan and Australia.