WASHINGTON, (Raja Furqan Ahmed) : A US State Department report has claimed that outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) wants to push the government of Pakistan out of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) by waging a terrorist campaign against the military and state to impose Sharia laws. According to the 2021 Country Reports on Terrorism, the TTP uses the tribal belt along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border to train and deploy its operatives. The report further added that TTP draws ideological guidance from Al Qaeda, while elements of AQ rely in part on TTP for safe haven in the Pashtun areas along the Afghan-Pakistan border. “This arrangement has given TTP access to both AQ’s global terrorist network and its members’ operational expertise.” The report also names major terrorist groups that focused on conducting attacks in Pakistan, including TTP, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and the militant Islamic State-Khorasan group (IS-K). The report on terrorism notes that Pakistan “experienced significant terrorist activity” during the year in review, i.e. 2021. Underlining the link between terrorism and lack of economic activities, the report points out that “the United States provides assistance to support trade and economic growth” in Pakistan. The US assistance to Pakistan includes partnering with US businesses, civil society, and the regions bordering Afghanistan. “This assistance is intended to improve the lives of the Pakistani people and support US objectives,” the report explains. The report also acknowledges that Pakistan took steps in 2021 to counter terror financing and to restrain some India-focused militant groups. Pakistan reviewed and revised its 2015 National Action Plan (NAP) to counter terrorism, reducing the NAP from a 20-point plan to 14 key points. But the report complains that Pakistan made meagre progress on the most difficult aspects — specifically its pledge to dismantle all terrorist organisations without delay or discrimination. The report identifies IS-K as another group which poses a significant threat to Pakistan and is composed primarily of former TTP members, the Afghan Taliban and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. It is estimated to have between 3,000 and 5,000 fighters and has claimed responsibility for attacks on civilians and government officials in Pakistan. The report notes that Pakistan-focused terrorist groups continue to conduct attacks against Pakistani military and civilian targets. The report also mentions Pakistan’s pledge to “ensure that no armed militias are allowed to function in the country,” but complains that attackers continued to operate from Pakistani soil in 2021. The report identifies the Haqqani Network, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) as the groups that carry out such attacks. The report claims that although “Pakistan took some steps in 2021 to counter terror financing and to restrain some India-focused militant groups, authorities did not take sufficient action to dismantle them”.