US calls out Pakistan over failure in curbing terrorism

Rebuking Pakistan for its failure in curbing support to anti-India militants, the United States has issued a warning that Islamabad-based terrorist groups would continue to plan and conduct attacks in India and Afghanistan.

"The threat to the United States and the West from Pakistani-based terrorist groups will be persistent but diffuse," the statement of the US Intelligence Community Senate Select Committee on Intelligence read.

U.S. also named some of the groups that would pose threat to Pakistan's internal security, including -e Taliban Pakistan, Jamaat ul-Ahrar, al-Qa'ida in the Indian Subcontinent, ISIS-K, Laskhare Jhangvi, and Lashkar-e Jhangvi al-Alami.

The U.S. also targeted the much controversial and opposed China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and argued that the project, to which India has been vociferously objecting, would probably offer militants and terrorists additional targets.

United States also maintained that Pakistan's pursuit of tactical nuclear weapons potentially lowers the threshold for their use.

"Early deployment during a crisis of smaller, more mobile nuclear weapons would increase the amount of time that systems would be outside the relative security of a storage site, increasing the risk that a coordinated attack by non-state actors might succeed in capturing a complete nuclear weapon," the statement read.

U.S. also reprimanded Islamabad's failure to curb support to anti-India militants leading a deterioration of bilateral relations between India and Pakistan.

-ANI