Pak's three-pronged approach to nail terrorists has failed, says US

The Musharraf regime's three-pronged approach to nail terror elements in Pakistan has more or less failed, says U.S. State Department Country Report on Terrorism 2006, and it adds that Pakistan remains a major source of Islamic extremism and a safe haven for some top terrorist leaders, despite being a frontline ally of the United States in the war on terror.

Lahore, May.2 : The Musharraf regime's three-pronged approach to nail terror elements in Pakistan has more or less failed, says U.S. State Department Country Report on Terrorism 2006, and it adds that Pakistan "remains a major source of Islamic extremism and a safe haven for some top terrorist leaders", despite being a frontline ally of the United States in the "war on terror".

According to the report, quoted extensively by the Daily Times, Pakistan's Federal Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) has been a safe haven for both the Al Qaeda and the Taliban since 2001.

Notwithstanding the fact that Pakistan maintains 80,000 Frontier Corps and Army troops in FATA, it has been unable to exert control over the area, says the report.

"The failure of the tribal leaders in FATA to fulfil their promises to the government under the terms of the North Waziristan agreement signed in September 2006, has failed to stem insurgent infiltration into Afghanistan," it adds.

The report says Pakistan's government is taking a three-pronged approach to increase its writ in FATA - political, security and developmental.

"For the political prong, Pakistan seeks to bolster effective governance by empowering local officials. For the security prong, Pakistan's objective is to increase the capacity and efficacy of local security forces. For the developmental prong, the government has designed a comprehensive sustainable development plan for the region."

Though the report lauds President Musharraf for being a forceful advocate of enlightened and moderate Islam, it says that the government's crackdown on banned organisations, hate material, and incitement by religious leaders has continued "unevenly".

The report estimates that 900 Pakistanis lost their lives in more than 650 terror attacks in 2006, with another 1,500 people seriously injured. These attacks came from Al Qaeda and its supporters, as well as violence stemming from Sunni-Shia sectarian strife and militant sub-nationalists in Balochistan.

It says though Pakistan continued to work with the UNSCR 1267 Committee to freeze the assets of terrorist entities linked to Al Qaeda and the Taliban, "several UN-sanctioned entities continued to operate".

It also noted that an anti-money laundering bill introduced in the National Assembly in September 2005 has still not been passed, adding that the legislation would "significantly broaden Pakistan's ability to cooperate internationally on counter-terrorism finance issues".

The report also said the Bush administration had designated Islamic groups Harkatul Mujahideen (HUM), Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba- all said to be based in Pakistan - as "foreign terrorist organisations," prohibiting US residents from extending material support to them.

This also denies individuals representing these groups from entering or doing business in the US. In all 42 groups, active in different parts of the world, figure in the US terrorist list.

The report says HUM and JeM are politically aligned with the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party led by Maulana Fazlur Rehman, and operate primarily in Indian-held Kashmir.

The department has designated Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami, Hizbul Mujahideen and Jamaatul Mujahideen as "groups of concern".

ANI