New York: The US has held a counter-terrorism dialogue with Pakistan, which hosts several terrorists and terror groups, and they reaffirmed their “shared commitment to combating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations”, according to their joint statement.
At the dialogue held in Islamabad on Tuesday, the US “applauded Pakistan’s continued successes in containing terrorist entities that pose a threat to the peace and security of the region and the world.”, the statement said.
The statement mentioned three terrorist organisations, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), ISIS-Khorasan, and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), but was silent about at least five others and their affiliates that are on the US government’s list of terrorist organisations based in Pakistan.
Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, which carried out the 9/11 attacks on the US, was given refuge by Pakistan and was taken out by US Navy Seals in a 2011 raid.
US State Department’s Coordinator for Counterterrorism Gregory LoGerfo and Nabeel Munir, Pakistan’s special secretary for the United Nations, co-chaired the dialogue.
In Washington State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce said they “discussed ways to enhance cooperation to counter terrorist threats, and I think that is good for the region and for the world”.
The statement said, “Both sides emphasised that sustained and structured engagement remains vital to countering terrorism and promoting peace and stability”.
The dialogue is not the result of recent bonhomie of US President Donald Trump and Pakistan’s military leadership, but has been held annually since at least 2023 when Democrat Joe Biden was the president.
The statement said the two “delegations underscored the critical importance of developing effective approaches to terrorist threats, including those posed by” the three terrorist groups it named.
On the eve of the dialogue, the US added the BLA and its affiliate The Mujaheed Brigade (TMB) to its roster of Foreign Terrorist Organisations, which along with their leaders face US sanctions.
The US, according to the statement, “expressed condolences for the loss of civilians and members of law enforcement agencies in terrorist incidents in Pakistan, including the barbaric Jaffar Express terrorist attack and the bombing of a school bus in Khuzdar”.
BLA claimed responsibility for the hijacking of the Jafar Express train in April, with over 300 passengers, in which 31 civilians and security personnel were killed.
The Pakistan government has blamed the suicide-bombing of a school bus in Khuszdur in May on BLA.
At least eight students were among the ten civilians killed.
According to the statement, the US and Pakistan emphasised “building stronger institutional frameworks and developing capabilities to respond to security challenges and to counter the use of emerging technologies for terrorist purposes” and cooperation in international organisations like the UN, where Pakistan is currently an elected member of the Security Council.
The US-Pakistan Counterterrorism Dialogue’s joint statement is silent on these organisations on the US government’s Foreign Terrorist Organisation list: Hizbul Mujahideen, Jaysh al-Adl/Jundallah, Lashkar i Jhangvi, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Harakat ul-Mujahidin, and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, along with four affiliates, including The Resistance Front, which carried out the Pahalgam massacre in April and was added to the list last month.
(IANS)
