Take ‘sustained and irreversible’ actions against terrorists: US tells Pakistan

The United States of America has asked Islamabad to take “sustained and irreversible” actions against terrorist groups operating from its territory to prevent future attacks and promote regional stability.

“The United States notes these steps and we continue to urge Pakistan to take sustained, irreversible action against terrorist groups that will prevent future attacks and that will promote regional stability,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Robert Palladino said at a Department press briefing.

“And we reiterate our call for Pakistan to abide by its United Nations Security Council obligations to deny terrorists safe haven and block entry to funds,” he said.

The State Department statement came as Pakistan, under global pressure, has started taking actions against some of the terrorist outfits and their leaders over the past few days.

As India seeks to mount pressure on Pakistan to give up the use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy, it is also “moving towards” urging the world community to consider declaring Pakistan a state-sponsor of terrorism.

In Islamabad, the Interior Ministry on Thursday announced that a total of 121 members of the proscribed groups have so far been taken into “preventive detention” across Pakistan.

Hafiz Saeed, the founder and leader of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeY) and the mastermind of the Mumbai attacks that claimed 166 lives and was arrested and released in 2017 for the same, had been kept under house arrest by the government of Pakistan.

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based terror group JeM killed 40 CRPF personnel in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district in February 14.