Challenges in South Asia to grow due to elections in Afghanistan, India: US report

Washington: United States Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats expects challenges facing the South Asian region to grow in 2019 due to elections in Afghanistan and India, large-scale Taliban attacks and “Pakistan’s recalcitrance in dealing with militant groups”.
In a public testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Tuesday, Coats presented a threat assessment report outlining significant global security threats facing the US.
The National Intelligence director in his remarks predicted that in the coming year, “militant groups in Pakistan will continue to take advantage of their safe haven there to plan and conduct attacks in neighbouring countries and possibly beyond.”
Coats’ report holds Pakistan responsible for supporting and providing militants safe haven “to plan and conduct attacks in India and Afghanistan, including against US interests”. It also accuses Islamabad of “using some groups as policy tools and confronting only the militant groups that directly threaten Pakistan”.
The report claims that Pakistan’s “narrow approach to counter-militancy cooperation […] almost certainly will frustrate US counter-terrorism efforts against the Taliban”.