India targeted nine terrorist training camps at six different locations in Pakistan overnight. Afterward, the two countries exchanged artillery fire along the disputed Line of Control. While the risk of nuclear escalation is real, the two countries have stood down after similar incidents in the past.
Khan’s claim that “our [Pakistani] soil is not used for carrying out terrorist attacks in other countries” is remarkably similar, if not identical to the Afghan Taliban’s false assurances that it won’t allow its territory to be used by terror groups.
General Bajwa and Pakistani officials can pontificate all they like about how their country has eliminated terrorism and no longer permit terrorists to use its soil to attack another country. A look at the facts tells another story, and that is one of Pakistani duplicity.
If Trump is serious about hitting back at Pakistan, expect the US to ramp up drone strikes against jihadists, and not just in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
For decades the country has permitted a number of jihadist groups to openly operate under its aegis. A map highlights the more prominent groups openly operating inside Pakistan.
The brief designation omitted Hizbul Mujahideen’s support for al Qaeda in the past, as well as its relations with other jihadist groups in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba. Hizbul Mujahideen’s emir was officially listed as a global terrorist in June 2017.
Insights from a Database of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen Militants
Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the former emir of the Jamaat-e-Islami, spoke at a funeral service for Engineer Ahsan Aziz, who was killed on Aug. 18. Syed Salahuddin, the emir of the Hizbul Mujahideen, was also in attendance.
The emir of the Al Badar Mujahideen said his group is waging jihad in both Afghanistan and Kashmir, and the leader of Hizbul Mujahideen said his group’s jihad is against the US and its allies.
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