The United States remained unconvinced over Pakistan’s efforts to convict Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and asked the Imran Khan regime to further hold him accountable for his crimes. The US’ reaction on Lakhvi has come a day after India termed Pakistan’s action against the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack mastermind as farce and an attempt to mislead the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) ahead of its plenary. In a tweet, US State Department said Lakhvi’s crimes go far beyond financing terrorism and Pakistan must further hold him accountable for his involvement in terrorist attacks including Mumbai attacks. On Friday, an anti-terrorism court in Lahore sentenced Lakhvi to 15 years in prison in a terror-funding case.
Reacting to the development, India had pointed out that the timing of these actions clearly suggests the intention of conveying the sense of compliance ahead of the next FATF plenary meeting in February 2021. New Delhi said, it has become routine for Pakistan to come up with such farcical actions prior to important meetings. India also said UN proscribed entities and designated terrorists act as proxies of Pakistani establishment to fulfil its anti-India agenda. New Delhi urged the international community to hold Pakistan to account and ensure it takes credible actions against terror groups, terror infrastructure and individual terrorists.