Patterns of Global Terrorism 2001 - Pakistan

After September 11, Pakistan pledged and provided full support for the Coalition effort in the war on terrorism. Pakistan has afforded the United States unprecedented levels of cooperation by allowing the US military to use bases within the country. Pakistan also worked closely with the United States to identify and detain extremists and to seal the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. (In February 2002, the United States and Pakistan agreed to institutionalize counterterrorism exchanges as a component of a newly created, wide-ranging Law Enforcement Joint Working Group.)

As of November, Islamabad had frozen over $300,000 in terrorist-related assets in several banks. In December President Pervez Musharraf announced to the Government a proposal to bring Pakistan's madrassas (religious schools) – some of which have served as breeding grounds for extremists – into the mainstream educational system. Pakistan also began sweeping police reforms, upgraded its immigration control system, and began work on new anti-terrorist finance laws.

In December, Musharraf cracked down on "anti-Pakistan" extremists and, by January 2002, Pakistani authorities had arrested more than 2,000 including leaders of the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LT), and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM), both designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations – as well as the Jamiat Ulema-I-Islami (JUI), a religious party with ties to the Taliban and Kashmiri militant groups. Pakistani support for Kashmiri militant groups designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations waned after September 11. Questions remain, however, whether Musharraf's "get tough" policy with local militants and his stated pledge to oppose terrorism anywhere will be fully implemented and sustained.