Pakistan has taken key steps to counter terror groups: US

WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD: United States State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller has said that the US recognises that Pakistan has taken some important steps to counter terrorist groups in line with the completion of its Financial Action Task Force action plans.

“This includes the arrest and conviction of Sajid Mir,” he said in a media briefing on Monday when his attention was drawn to criticism by Pakistan’s foreign ministry of the June 22 US-India joint statement asking Pakistan to ensure its territory was not used for militant attacks.

“The US remains committed to working with Pakistan to address the shared threat posed by terrorist groups throughout the region,” Miller said, acknowledging that the Pakistani people had suffered from terrorist attacks over the years.

Moreover, he said, the US commend both Pakistan and India for continuing to uphold the ceasefire along the Line of Control. “At the same time, however, we have also been consistent on the importance of Pakistan continuing to take steps so as to permanently dismantle all terrorist groups, including Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and various front organisations.”

Miller stressed that the US would raise the issue regularly with Pakistani officials and “we’ll continue to work together to counter mutual threats as we discussed during our March 2023 CT dialogue”.

In answer to another question, he said: “We regularly raise concerns about human rights in our conversations with the Indian officials, and you saw President Biden speak to this himself in the joint press conference that he held with Prime Minister Modi.”

Miller’s remarks came after the US deputy chief of mission was called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad on Monday evening, and a demarche was given to him about the US-India joint statement.

Pakistan’s concerns and disappointment at the unwarranted, one-sided and misleading references to it in the joint statement were conveyed to the US side.

It was stressed that the US should refrain from issuing statements that may be construed as an encouragement of India’s baseless and politically motivated narrative against Pakistan.

It was also emphasised that counterterrorism cooperation between Pakistan and the US had been progressing well and that an enabling environment, centered around trust and understanding, was imperative to further solidify Pakistan-US ties.