New Delhi:
Two-days after the BRICS Xiamen Summit declaration named Pak-based terror groups in its outcome document, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif has accepted that terror outfits like JeM and LeT are active on his country's soil.
Asif acknowledging the existence of LeT and JeM in Pakistan said, to avoid the international shame, we should but some restrictions on these terror outfits.
“We need to tell our friends that we have improved our house. We need to bring our house in order to prevent facing embarrassment on the international level,” Asif said while speaking to Geo News
The inclusion of LeT and JeM in the BRICS Declaration at Xiamen is considered a setback to Pakistan, and success for India as China had in past blocked efforts to name these Pakistan-based terror outfits in the declaration of BRICS Goa Summit last year.
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Asif said that “friends should not be tested [every time], particularly in the changed scenario”.
“Instead, we should impose some restrictions on the activities of elements like LeT and JeM, so that we can show the global community that we have put our house in order,” he said.
However, Asif said the BRICS declaration should not be considered as China’s official stance as other countries including Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa are also a part of the group.
US President Donald Trump had also criticised Pakistan for being a “safe haven” for terror groups like the Haqqani network.
"Pakistan did not take sufficient action against other externally focused groups, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in 2016, which continued to operate, train, organise, and fundraise in Pakistan," a US annual report on 'Country Report on Terrorism' said.
