Pakistan Army's "risky double game" of selectively supporting some terror groups threatens US national security objectives of rooting out terrorism from South Asia, two experts have said citing the granting of bail to Mumbai attack mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.
"Pakistan's selective approach in fighting terrorism continues to undermine US national security objectives in the region," wrote Lisa Curtis, a senior research fellow and Huma Sattar, a visiting analyst, at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
"If Pakistan is indeed serious about combating terrorism, it must come down hard on all terrorist groups and break all links with terrorists operating in Afghanistan and India. US policy must insist on this outcome," they wrote in a commentary titled 'Pakistan's selective fight against terrorism threatens US security goals in South Asia'.
The two experts cited Islamabad anti-terrorism court's granting of bail to Lakhvi in the 2008 Mumbai attack case to highlight the contradiction in Pakistan's policy towards terrorism.
"Last December, two days after the horrific TTP attack on a military school in Peshawar that killed nearly 130 children, Pakistan's Anti-Terrorism Court granted bail to Lakhvi. This stunning development was likely a signal from the Pakistan military to India that it would retain the LeT as a tool, even as it cracked down on the TTP," Curtis and Sattar said.
"Only this month, the Islamabad High Court, in all likelihood having been strong-armed by the military leadership, rejected Pakistani government arguments and ordered the release of Lakhvi," they said in the joint commentary last week.
The two experts opined that the Pakistan military probably will keep Lakhvi in jail because Pakistani officials understand that releasing him could cost hundreds of millions in US aid to Pakistan.
"But the signal that the bail plea sends about the military's intentions to continue relying on the LeT is cause for deep concern," they asserted.
"The Pakistan army's risky double game of selectively supporting some terrorist groups threatens US national security objectives of rooting out global terrorism from South Asia," they wrote.
"So long as Pakistan's military allows groups that follow an extremist Islamist ideology to operate freely, they make their territory an environment in which global terrorism can flourish," they added.
Curtis and Sattar pointed out that earlier this year, US Secretary of State John Kerry declared all terrorism in Pakistan "unacceptable" and offered USD 250 million to aid refugees displaced by the Pakistani military offensive against Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants in North Waziristan.
The Pakistani military has repeatedly tried to assure Washington that it is committed to cracking down on all terrorist groups in its territory, but so far there are few signs that it is ready to confront those groups that fight in Afghanistan and India, they opined.
