Islamabad/New Delhi, April 1 (IANS) The United States, United Nations, and European Union must go beyond symbolic sanctions against Pakistan and enforce comprehensive financial and diplomatic measures against institutions enabling terror activities, a report said on Wednesday.
Citing the recent findings by the US Congressional Research Service (CRS) on militant groups in Pakistan, a report in India Narrative stated that these observations starkly validate a decades-long reality: “Pakistan remains the primary hub for organised terrorism."
The CRS report, it said, highlighted that 12 out of the 15 terror groups operating within Pakistani territory have been designated as Foreign Terrorist Organisations (FTOs) under US law, with most driven by Islamist extremist ideology.
The report classified these outfits not just by name but by their “specific operational theaters," shedding light on a “terror ecosystem that has not only left a mark globally but penetrated domestically."
According to the report, the persistence and longevity of the terror groups in Pakistan stem not from a single failure but from a combination of “state policies, regional geopolitics, and underground financing."
It added that these terror outfits have persisted for decades because the security establishments have used them as a force multiplier.
As per the CRS findings, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has, over the years, distinguished good and bad terrorists for their own foreign policy agenda.
The India Narrative report stressed that the Resistance Front, a proxy of Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which was behind the April 2025 terrorist attack in Pahalgam, killing 27 innocent Indian citizens, continues to operate despite mounting international pressure.
Pakistan has facilitated this through a deliberate policy of “strategic depth", offering financial lifelines and safe havens.
“As technology is growing, so are the methods in which these groups continue to get funded. According to the Washington International Law Journal, terror groups evolve by using a ‘multi-stream financial model that bypasses traditional banking ways.' Some groups often collect charity in the name of 'Zakat,' or religious donations, from the citizens, which is used to keep such outfits running,” the report detailed.
“They also use the Hawala system, an undocumented transfer of money; drug trafficking on the borders; illegal mining; and unregulated madrasas, making it impossible for global watchdogs to choke the financial lifelines. This perceived risk has historically forced the US, EU, and UN into a cycle of appeasement, providing Pakistan with the diplomatic space to continue its double game while the terror infrastructure remains fundamentally untouched,” it added.
Emphasising the need for decisive global action against terror networks in Pakistan, the report said, “The international community must treat the facilitators of terrorism with the same severity as the perpetrators to dismantle permanently these factories of hate that have operated with impunity for 40 years.”
--IANS
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