UK terrorism report says Pakistan is still a threat

The threat of terrorism exported from Pakistan remains of the “highest importance” to Britain, the government has said in an update of its counter-terrorism strategy that rebuts the assumption that the threat had shifted decisively from Pakistan, reports Dipankar De Sarkar.

The threat of terrorism exported from Pakistan remains of the “highest importance” to Britain, the government has said in an update of its counter-terrorism strategy that rebuts the assumption that the threat had shifted decisively from Pakistan.

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Although the government says successful anti-al Qaeda operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan have led to the “dispersal and diversification of the terrorist threat” into Africa and West Asia, the threat from Pakistan remains a concern.

“Pakistan and the tribal areas along the Afghan border remain of the highest importance to our national security. Although depleted in numbers and capability, al Qaeda continues to operate from this region and still has the capability to conduct terrorist attacks,” the government said in the annual review of its strategy.

The most alarming evidence of this threat comes in the continuing uncovering of terrorist plots hatched by Britons who received training from terrorists in Pakistan. “People from this country continue to travel to this area to join al Qaeda and receive al Qaeda training,” says the report presented to parliament by home minister Theresa May.