U.S. Report: Pakistan Hosts 15 Terror Groups

A new report from the U.S. Congressional Research Service has concluded that Pakistan remains a base for numerous terrorist organizations, including several focused on India and Kashmir, despite years of military operations and counterterrorism measures. Released on March 25, the assessment identifies 15 such groups operating on Pakistani soil, with 12 designated as foreign terrorist organizations under U.S. law.

The report, prepared by the nonpartisan research arm of Congress to inform lawmakers, categorizes the militants into five types: globally oriented, Afghanistan-focused, India- and Kashmir-oriented, domestically focused, and sectarian. Most are driven by Islamist extremist ideology, it states, and many have been active since the 1980s. Among the India- and Kashmir-oriented groups, Lashkar-e-Taiba stands out as one of the most capable, with several thousand fighters based in Pakistan's Punjab province and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The group, led by Hafiz Saeed, has operated under aliases like Jamaat-ud-Dawa to evade sanctions and is responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people, as well as other strikes in India.

Jaish-e-Mohammed, founded in 2000 by...