Pakistan’s doublespeak on the issue of terrorism was again on the display as the country, despite the Financial Action Task Force’s Democles’ sword hanging over its head, continues to harbour terrorists and is giving “VIP treatment” to many of them including India’s most-wanted underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and Pakistan-based Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF) terrorist Ranjeet Singh Neeta.
As per an ANI report, the Pakistan government is giving VIP security to 21 dreaded terrorists including those sanctioned as recently as last month.
According to the list accessed by the news agency, the terrorists given VIP treatment include underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, Wadhwa Singh, Chief of Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), Indian Mujahideen (IM) chief, Riyaz Bhatkal, terrorist Mirza Shadab Baig and Afif Hassan Siddibapa.
Many of these terrorists are those who are wanted in India. Pakistan is giving them asylum. New Delhi has repeatedly exposed Pakistan who is sponsoring the terrorist groups and training and arming them to wage war against India.
Under pressure from the international community, especially the Paris-based watchdog FATF, the Pakistan government has of late been trying to project itself as acting against terrorist outfits operating from its soil. Last month, Islamabad had imposed more restrictions on 88 leaders and members of terrorist groups, in compliance with the new list, issued by the United Nations Security Council. Hafiz Saeed Ahmad of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Mohammad Masood Azhar of JeM and Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and Ibrahim are on the list.
Though Pakistan has claimed that it is taking actions against the terrorist groups, however, there are no details of how many actions have been implemented. Islamabad is racing against time to escape the FATF’s blacklist and clearing its name from the grey list. Pakistan is in the grey list since June 2018 and the government was given a final warning in February to complete the remaining action points by June 2020. The FATF extended the June deadline to September due to the spread of Covid-19 that disrupted the FATF plenary meetings.
Pakistan is trying hard to avoid a demotion from the FATF grey list to the blacklist during the upcoming October plenary meeting. While Pakistan tries to showcase its ‘efforts’ in combating terrorism, there have been reports from Afghanistan giving ample evidence of the presence of Pakistani terrorists on its land.
With Ani Inputs
