In yet another embarrassing moment for Pakistan, a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report has claimed that Islamabad remains a safe heaven for terrorists, including for those who continue to target India, particularly the union territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir.ย
The report, dated March 25, 2026, said Pakistan and its military have acted “inconsistently” against terror groups, and authorities failed to take “sufficient action to stop certain terrorist groups and individuals from openly operating in the country”.
Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) continues to operate from Pakistani soil, despite Islamabad’s National Action Plan, which calls “ensure that no armed militias are allowed to function in the country”, the report said.ย
It said that LeT, formed in the late 1980s as the terrorist wing of Markaz ud Dawa ul-Irshad, has kept targeting India since 1993. The group has even carried out attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the report said, adding that it disseminates its message through Jamaat-ud-Dawa’s media outlets.
“LeT collects donations in Pakistan and the Gulf as well as from other donors in the Middle East and Europe โ particularly the UK, where it is a designated terrorist organization.ย In 2019, LeT and its front organizations continued to operate and fundraise in Pakistan,” it stated.ย
Similarly, the JeM continues to operate from Pakistan, despite getting banned in 2002. The terror group has invested heavily in legal businesses like commodity trading, real estate, and the production of consumer goods, and also collects funds via donations, the CRS report said.
“Pakistan remained a safe harbor for other regionally focused terrorist groups,” the report stated. “It allowed groups targeting Afghanistan, including the Afghan Taliban and affiliated HQN, as well as groups targeting India, including LeT and its affiliated front organizations, and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), to operate from its territory.”
“It did not take action against other known terrorists such as JeM founder and UN-designated terrorist Masood Azhar and 2008 Mumbai attack โproject managerโ Sajid Mir, both of whom are believed to remain free in Pakistan,” it added.
The report also mentioned about Al-Qaโida in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), which was established in 2014. It says that AQIS, estimated to have several hundreds of members, also operates in Pakistan, targeting human rights activists and secular writers.
Pakistan is also struggling to deal with Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has a heavy presence in the country’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The TTP, which even has ties with Al Qaeda, aims to end Pakistani rule in the province and establish Sharia law.
“TTP uses the tribal belt along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border to train and deploy its operatives, and the group has ties to al-Qaโida (AQ),” the CSR report said. “TTP draws ideological guidance from AQ, while elements of AQ rely in part on TTP for safe haven in the Pashtun areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistani border.”
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