Director of US national intelligence Dan Coats has said on Tuesday, the militant groups being harboured by Pakistan will continue to plan and launch attacks in both Afghanistan and India.
According to TOI news reports, Coasts also said Islamabad’s “narrow approach to counterterrorism cooperation – using some groups as policy tools and confronting only the militant groups that directly threaten Pakistan – almost certainly will frustrate US counterterrorism efforts against the Taliban”.
During testimony to the US Senate intelligence committee on Tuesday, Coats told them, “Militant groups supported by Pakistan will continue to take advantage of their safe haven in Pakistan to plan and conduct attacks in India and Afghanistan, including against US interests.”
As part of their annual Worldwide Threat Assessment report to the US Congress, the top intelligence officials, including FBI director Christopher Wray, CIA director Gina Haspel, and director of national intelligence Dan Coats presented the conclusion to the US Senate intelligence committee.
The report on South Asia was a part of the US intelligence committee’s assessment of the worldwide threats in 2019.
Coasts said South Asia will face more challenges in 2019 due to Afghan’s presidential election in July and also the Taliban’s attacks, India’s general election that used to risk communal violence, and Pakistan’s recalcitrance tackling terror groups.
Coats said, “We assess that neither the Afghan Government nor the Taliban will be able to gain a strategic military advantage in the Afghan war in the coming year if coalition support remains at current levels.”
The Afghan military has generally secured its cites and several governments strongholds, but the Taliban has boosted its large-scale attacks, and the Afghan security faces defensive missions, lack of reliable forces to prevent its territory and mobility shortfall, Coats added.