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1 1 (December 1, 2023)

handle is hein.crs/govenpf0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Ter Congressional Research Service hformingt Ih eg Iative debate~ sne 1914 Terrorist and Other Militant Groups in Pakistan U.S. officials have identified Pakistan as a base of operations and/or target for numerous armed, nonstate militant groups, some of which have existed since the 1980s. Notable terrorist and other groups operating in and/or launching attacks on Pakistan are of five broad, but not exclusive types: (1) globally oriented; (2) Afghanistan- oriented; (3) India- and Kashmir-oriented; (4) domestically oriented; and (5) sectarian (anti-Shia). Twelve of the 15 groups listed below are designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) under U.S. law and most, but not all, are animated by Islamist extremist ideology. Pakistan has suffered considerably from domestic terrorism since 2003, and related fatalities peaked in 2009. Many observers predicted a resurgence of regional terrorism and militancy in the wake of the Afghan Taliban's 2021 takeover, and data show this has occurred: After five consecutive years of declining fatality rates down to 365 in 2019, the number of terrorism deaths in Pakistan is up every year since, quadrupling to at least 1,438 in 2023 (see Figure 1). In November 2023, Pakistan's prime minister claimed that, since August 2021, there has been a 60% rise in militant attacks in Pakistan and a 500% rise in suicide bombings in which more than 2,200 Pakistanis were killed. Figure 1. Terrorism-Related Fatalities in Pakistan and Rate of Change over Time, 2001-2023 Source: South Asia Terrorism Portal (New Delhi). Data through November 2023. According to the U.S. State Department's Country Reports on Terrorism 2022 (released in November 2023), In 2022, Pakistan took steps to counter terrorism financing and restrain some India-focused terrorist groups. However, it has yet to complete its pledge to dismantle all terrorist organizations without delay or discrimination. The report notes Pakistan's successful May 2022 prosecution and sentencing of a senior Lashkar-e-Taiba leader (see below), as well as counterterrorism operations conducted by military, paramilitary, and civilian security forces. It reports Updated December 1, 2023 that some madrassas (religious schools) continue to teach extremism. Although Pakistan's 2014 National Action Plan to counter terrorism seeks to ensure that no armed militias are allowed to function in the country, several United Nations- and U.S.-designated terrorist groups continue to operate from Pakistani soil. Figure 2. Map of Pakistan Sources: CRS. Boundaries from U.S. Department of State and ESRI. In 2018, the Paris-based intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF) returned Pakistan to its gray list of countries found to have strategic deficiencies in countering money laundering and terrorist financing. In late 2022, FATF assessed that Pakistan had addressed technical deficiencies and completed all action items, and it removed the country from the gray list. Also in 2018, the U.S. President designated Pakistan a Country of Particular Concern under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. It has been redesignated annually four times. Globally Oriented Militants Al Qaeda (AQ) core was formed in 1988 in Afghanistan by Osama bin Laden and designated as an FTO in 1999. U.S.-led forces expelled AQ from Afghanistan after its September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. AQ subsequently operated primarily from the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA, now incorporated into Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province; see Figure 2). U.S. special forces killed Bin Laden in a May 2011 raid in Pakistan; he was succeeded by Ayman al-Zawahiri, himself killed by a U.S.-launched airstrike on Afghanistan in July 2022. A successor has yet to be named. AQ core has been seriously degraded, but maintains ties to numerous other Pakistan-based FTOs. Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) was established in 2014 under the leadership of Asim Umar-a Indian national subsequently killed in a joint U.S.-Afghan

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