Pakistan-based terrorist groups are planning to carry out attacks in both India and Afghanistan, the top US intelligence official has warned while asserting that Islamabad had failed to rein in terrorists.
Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats, during a Congressional hearing on worldwide threats, told members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that Pakistan was expanding its nuclear arsenal in pursuing tactical nuclear weapons, potentially lowering the threshold for their use.
Noting that Pakistan has failed to curb militants in its territory, Coats said, “These groups will present a sustained threat to the United States’ interest in the region and continue to plan and conduct attacks in India and Afghanistan.”
In South Asia, the intelligence community assesses that the political and security situation in Afghanistan will almost certainly deteriorate through 2018 even with a modest increase in military assistance by the United States and its partners, he told the lawmakers.