London: Pakistan remains to be a breeding ground of terrorism with the country registering the highest number of terrorist bases and safe havens, reveals a report. Identifying Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) as the outfit which continues to pose the maximum threat to international security, it said that Pakistan poses three times the terror risk to humanity than Syria.
According to news agency ANI, the facts were published in a report titled “Humanity at Risk – Global Terror Threat Indicant (GTTI)” by Oxford University and Strategic Foresight Group (SFG).
It terms Pakistan a supporter of global terrorism and a country which is responsible for three times the terror risk to humanity that Syria poses. The survey states that while the Afghan Taliban and the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) pose the maximum threat to international security, Pakistan is placed on top of the list of countries with the highest number of terrorist bases and safe havens.
“If we look at the most dangerous terrorist groups, based on hard facts and statistics, we find that Pakistan hosts or aids majority of them. Also, there are a significant number of groups based in Afghanistan, which operate with the support of Pakistan,” the report says.
The over 80-page report, which has been prepared to discuss security challenges in the next decade, presents an analytical framework for policymakers to tackle terrorism.
“The rise of competitive extremism of all shades, misuse of weapons of mass destruction and economic disruptions can undermine human progress or even survival in the period from now until 2030. They are all interlinked with terrorism,” the report said.
The Strategic Foresight Group analysed some 200 groups actively involved in committing acts of terror in the first half decade of the 21st century. During that period, the groups motivated by their own interpretation of ideology accounted for only a fourth of almost 200 terror groups around the world.
Among these, ISIS has attracted much of media space in the last five years. But with swift rise and fall of ISIS, the Al-Qaida remains the most resilient network. Until 2011, it was led by Osama bin Laden but now his son, Hamza bin Osama bin Laden has emerged, as what sections of the media describe, as the “new crown prince of terror”.
The most significant factor influencing the future of terror groups would be the support they get from states, intelligence agencies and criminal networks.
“The birth of Al-Qaida was in Pakistan and then Pakistan influenced Afghanistan. Osama Bin Laden had a safe haven in a huge compound near the Pakistani military establishment in Abbottabad. The compound was much larger than the surrounding houses of retired Pakistani military officers. The occupants of the compound often bought expensive goods from a neighbourhood shop that most people in the vicinity could not afford. The presence of an important family in the compound was nothing but conspicuous,” the report said.
The report has also given comprehensive details about global terror outfits operating from Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen and other countries who have linkages with each other.