The United States of America has decided to suspend $1.66 billion in security assistance aid to Pakistan after President Donald Trump directed early this year, the Pentagon said. Reportedly, the growing frustration of the American government against Pakistan’s inability to fight Islamic terrorism has resulted in the cutting off aid to Pakistan.
According to the reports, the decision comes days after Trump statements slamming Pakistan of not doing ‘a damn thing’ for the US, alleging that its government had helped Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden hide near its garrison city of Abbottabad.
$1.66 billion of security assistance to Pakistan is suspended,” Col Rob Manning, spokesman of the Department of Defense told the reporters on Tuesday.
Earlier, The US President Donald Trump had launched a scathing attack on Pakistan for deliberately not acting against the Islamic terrorist forces operating on its soil by citing the presence of 9/11 mastermind al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden who was hiding in Abbottabad, allegedly under the protection of its military.
Some experts believe that President Trump is frustrated over Pakistan after the leaders of Pakistan failed in keeping their promise of serious cooperation between two countries to fight terrorism. Recently, Trump had shared a tweet saying that the former President Clinton had failed to act on the issue of Bin Laden.
Of course we should have captured Osama Bin Laden long before we did. I pointed him out in my book just BEFORE the attack on the World Trade Center. President Clinton famously missed his shot. We paid Pakistan Billions of Dollars & they never told us he was living there. Fools!..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2018
The United States has been pushing Pakistan for a long time now, to crack down on safe havens for terrorists operating inside the country. It had also announced a freeze on the aid at the beginning of the year, which is reported to be worth almost $2 billion.
In September, the Trump administration had also cancelled USD 300 million in military aid to Islamabad for not doing enough against terror groups like the Haqqani Network and the Taliban active on its soil.
The United States believes that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency and other terrorist groups have actively promoted terrorism across the region. The White House believes that ISI has been providing support through the supply of arms and funds to terrorists not only for ideological reasons, but also to counter the rising Indian influence in Afghanistan.
The US had recently expressed its concerns regarding Pakistan’s inability to handle homegrown terror. In its recent ‘US annual country report’ for the year 2017, the US had said that the Islamic terror groups like Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba are constantly creating threats in the Indian sub-continent and that Pakistan did not pay adequate attention to the US concerns over terrorism in 2017.
Reportedly, Since 2002, Pakistan has received more than $33 billion as assistance from the United States, of which it has received $14 billion alone in the form of CSF, a US Defence Department to reimburse allies who have supported the US in counterinsurgency operations.
