In a long presser in Rawalpindi on Monday peppered with similar unconvincing claims, DG-ISPR Asif Ghafoor blamed India’s spy agency RAW for allegedly funding the Pashtun protest movement, PTM. Ghafoor said Pakistan’s neighbour should remember this was not 1971 — the year east Pakistan split from Pakistan and became Bangladesh

NEW DELHI: There are no terrorist organisations on Pakistani soil anymore, said the the country’s army spokesperson in an incredible claim even as the UN moves to put sanctions on JeM chief Masood Azhar who lives in and operates from Pakistan.

In a long presser in Rawalpindi on Monday peppered with similar unconvincing claims, DG-ISPR Asif Ghafoor blamed India’s spy agency RAW for allegedly funding the Pashtun protest movement, PTM. “We gave a befitting reply to Indian aggression on February 27 and we can do it again.” he said. “India is lying constantly for last two months.”

Ghafoor said Pakistan’s neighbour should remember this was not 1971 — the year east Pakistan split from Pakistan and became Bangladesh. He also dared India to reveal details of what happened post the Balakot airstrikes. “India has not said what happened in Pakistan’s counter-strike,” he said.

Pakistan’s Nacta (National Counter-Terrorism Authority) in March announced a “ban” on some 69 terror bodies, but has left many other organisations like Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and Al Badr operating in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Over half of the terror groups on India’s banned list continue to operate out of Pakistan.

In addition, there is silence over the fact that despite many organisations being on the banned list in Pakistan, their chiefs, like Azhar and Hafiz Saeed, continue to operate freely inside Pakistan. Zaki-ur Rahman Lakhvi of Lashkar-e-Taiba and prime accused in the 26/11 attacks has even been freed. So the “ban” is primarily to show a better face to the FATF and the Asia-Pacific Group which may recommend ‘blacklisting’ Pakistan later this year. In fact, Islamabad’s latest enthusiasm against its terror infrastructure comes soon after India’s Balakot strike against a Jaish-e-Muhammed facility and FATF ramping up pressure against Pakistan, which in many ways can be counted as a success of India’s policy to wean Pakistan away from terror. “The mainstreaming has three phases. The first is to prepare a bill which will be ready in around a month.

The second phase requires training of teachers and the third phase will be the implementation of the bill," he said.

The trouble is, Pakistan has been debating mainstreaming madrassas since Pervez Musharraf’s regime, when Pakistan promised to take this step as part of its anti-terror commitments under UNSC Resolution 1373. That did not go far.

In the current situation, Pakistan is again being asked by the international community to shut down its terror factories, many of whom thrive in these very madrassas. At present, over 2.5 million children study in these madrassas. Numerous studies have detailed that madrassas themselves are resistant to government interference, and since many of them are funded by charities from Saudi Arabia and Iran (depending on the sect of the madrassa), official control have not really worked.