Engel, Royce urge US to pursue different approach with Pak

Expressing concern over Pakistan's failure to take 'meaningful action' against Islamist terror groups operating within its territory, Republican Edward R. Royce and Democrat Eliot L. Engel have urged the United States to consider imposing travel bans, suspending portions of assistance and sanctioning Pakistani officials maintaining relations with terror groups in order to persuade Islamabad to act against extremists.

In a letter addressed to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Royce and Engel noted that although Pakistan had taken some steps to disrupt Al Qaeda and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), it had done little to combat other designated foreign terrorist groups such as Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Jaish-e-Muhammad.

The two politicians noted that groups like LeT and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), which are 'ostensibly banned', still operated freely without virtual impunity.

Both leaders, although welcomed Pakistan's recent announcement that it will ban the Haqqani Network soon but remained skeptical if it will affect any real change in Islamabad's policy which relies on favouring some terror groups over others.

"We are concerned that an outright ban will never come," they said in the letter.

"This selective approach appears to stem from a misguided belief that some terrorist groups serve Pakistan's foreign policy goals in India and Afghanistan," they observed.

The duo further said that taking stringent measures would send a clear signal that the U.S. and Pakistan cannot have a true strategic partnership unless Islamabad severed all ties with terror organizations and renounced its use 'as an instrument of state policy'.