The Narendra Modi government has received appreciation from the Trump administration for its significant counter-terrorism actions. The US government also said that Pakistan-based militant groups continued their terror attacks in India.
In its annual ‘Country Report on Terrorism‘, the US State Department said that the Indian leadership has expressed resolve to prevent terrorist attacks domestically and to bring to justice the perpetrators of terrorism, in cooperation with the US and other like-minded countries.
The report also states that “India continued to experience attacks, including by Pakistan-based terrorist organisations as well as tribal and Maoist insurgents. Indian authorities blamed Pakistan for cross-border attacks in the state of Jammu and Kashmir”. The report said that India has sought to deepen counterterrorism cooperation and information sharing with the United States, as both countries initiated the first-ever Designations Dialogue to combat terror.
According to the report, the region most impacted by the terrorism in 2017 included the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the northeast Indian states, and parts of central India, which is impacted by the left-wing terror. The report praised the efforts of India in combating terror and said that the government has constantly put pressure to detect, disrupt, and degrade terrorist organisations’ operations within its borders.
“Counterterrorism cooperation between India and the United States increased in 2017. The two pledged to strengthen cooperation against terrorist threats from groups including al-Qa’ida (AQ), ISIS, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), and D-Company”, said the report.
The report mentions the recent summit between the US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Modi in which a new mechanism was established to cooperate on terrorist designations.
The report by the state department also mentions some of the weakness of Inda. It says that despite rigours training of NSG, its rapid response capability is limited, mainly due to its limited size. It also points weakness in intelligence and information sharing between state and central law enforcement agencies in the country.
In June, US State Department had designated Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) senior leader Mohammad Yusuf Shah, also known as Syed Salahuddin as a global terrorist, and in the August designation, it had designated Hizbul Mujahideen as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
