By Anjali Sharma
WASHINGTON – According to a joint statement issued by Washington and Islamabad on Wednesday stated that the US has held a counter-terrorism dialogue with Pakistan, which hosts several terrorists and terror groups, and they reaffirmed their “shared commitment to combating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations”.
US “applauded Pakistan’s continued successes in containing terrorist entities that pose a threat to the peace and security of the region and the world.”, the statement said at the dialogue held in Islamabad on Tuesday.
The statement mentioned 3 terrorist organizations, the Balochistan Liberation Army, ISIS-Khorasan, and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, but was silent about at least 5 others and their affiliates that are on the US government’s list of terrorist organizations based in Pakistan.
Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, which carried out the 9/11 attacks on the US, was given refuge by Pakistan and was taken out by US Navy Seals in a 2011 raid.
US State Department’s Coordinator for Counterterrorism Gregory LoGerfo and Nabeel Munir, Pakistan’s special secretary for the UN co-chaired the dialogue.
State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce said they “discussed ways to enhance cooperation to counter terrorist threats, and I think that is good for the region and for the world”.
The statement said, “Both sides emphasized that sustained and structured engagement remains vital to countering terrorism and promoting peace and stability”.
The dialogue is not the result of recent bonhomie of US President Donald Trump and Pakistan’s military leadership, but has been held annually since at least 2023 when Democrat Joe Biden was the president.
The statement said the two “delegations underscored the critical importance of developing effective approaches to terrorist threats, including those posed by” the three terrorist groups it named.
US added the BLA and its affiliate The Mujaheed Brigade to its roster of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, which along with their leaders face US sanctions.
US, according to the statement, “expressed condolences for the loss of civilians and members of law enforcement agencies in terrorist incidents in Pakistan, including the barbaric Jaffar Express terrorist attack and the bombing of a school bus in Khuzdar”.
BLA claimed responsibility for the hijacking of the Jafar Express train in April, with over 300 passengers, in which 31 civilians and security personnel were killed.
The Pakistan government has blamed the suicide-bombing of a school bus in Khuszdur in May on BLA.
Pakistan said that 8 students were among the ten civilians killed.
According to the statement, the US and Pakistan emphasized “building stronger institutional frameworks and developing capabilities to respond to security challenges and to counter the use of emerging technologies for terrorist purposes” and cooperation in international organizations like the UN, where Pakistan is currently an elected member of the Security Council.
US-Pakistan Counterterrorism Dialogue’s joint statement is silent on these organizations on the US government’s Foreign Terrorist Organization list: Hizbul Mujahideen, Jaysh al-Adl/Jundallah, Lashkar i Jhangvi, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Harakat ul-Mujahidin, and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, along with 4 affiliates, including The Resistance Front, which carried out the Pahalgam massacre in April and was added to the list last month.
