Pakistan is accountable for executing cross-border terrorism in South Asia and strengthen Afghanistan, policy experts attending a seminar held at the University of London said recently.Hosted by the London-based The Democracy Forum (TDF), the seminar titled 'Will the new US Afghan policy prevent cross-border terrorism in the region' saw speakers nemine contradicente expressing alarm and concern over Pakistan's grim extension of support to terrorists, leading even one of them to declare Islamabad a "duplicate enemy" of the United States.Professor Thomas H. Johnson, Associate Professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, said he was in approval of ramping up pressure on Pakistan to change its ways by cutting military aid to even announcing the country a state supporter of terrorism. He also expressed his horror at the recent release from house arrest of Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed.

Johnson opined that Washington has the purchase to force Islamabad to change its ways, but added that the issues in Afghanistan could not be solved without the engagement of Pakistan and India.Dismissive of Washington's new Afghan policy, he said the former would not be able to stop cross-border terrorism in the region.

Afghanistan's former envoy to France and Canada, Omar Samad, highlighted that an important element of President Trump's South Asia strategy is to pressurise Pakistan to stop harbouring terrorists. He said President Trump's public condemnation of Islamabad and his decision to increase American troops on the ground was reflective of this strategy.