“We need to see Pakistan taking concrete and sustained action to rein in the terrorist groups, mainly the Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Lashkar-e-Taiba”

The United States has asked Pakistan to take sustained, verifiable and irreversible action against the perpetrators of terrorism and warned the country that another terror attack on India will prove to be “extremely problematic.”

“We need to see Pakistan taking concrete and sustained action to rein in the terrorist groups, mainly the Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Lashkar-e-Taiba, in order to ensure that we don’t have re-escalation [of tensions] in the region,” a senior administration official told reporters at the White House on Wednesday. “And, if there’s any additional terrorist attack without Pakistan having made a sustained, sincere effort against these groups, it would be extremely problematic for Pakistan and it would cause re-escalation of tensions, which is dangerous for both countries,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Asked about the steps being taken by Pakistan after the Balakot airstrike, the official said the U.S. and the international community needed to see “irreversible and sustained” action against the terror groups. “It’s early to make a full assessment,” the official said.

In the recent days, the official said, Pakistan had taken some “initial” actions. It had frozen the assets of some terror groups and made some arrests. It had taken administrative control of some of the JeM facilities. “But we clearly need to see more. We need to see irreversible action because in the past, what we’ve seen is they made some arrests and then a few months later, they released these individuals. The terrorist leaders are sometimes still allowed to travel around the country, hold rallies,” the official said.