In a recent speech, where the US President announced the country plans for Afghanistan and tacking the terror menace there, he expressed grave concerns about the nuclear armed neighbours- India and Pakistan.

Trump fears that the ongoing tension, which is escalating with each passing day, may explode, disrupting peace and destabilise in other neighbouring nations.

"Today, 20 U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations are active in Afghanistan and Pakistan -- the highest concentration in any region anywhere in the world. 

For its part, Pakistan often gives safe haven to agents of chaos, violence, and terror.  The threat is worse because Pakistan and India are two nuclear-armed states whose tense relations threaten to spiral into conflict.  And that could happen," Trump said.

One of his major concern is the easy movement of terrorist in Pakistan, from where LeT operates.

Reports indicate that Hafiz Saeed’s son Talha Saeed has taken over the reins of LeT’s propaganda machinery and a renewed push is coming from the organization.

Talha appears on Twitter (@HafizTalhaSaeed) as a lecturer, researcher, public speaker and proud son of Hafiz Saeed. Since his taking over, Talha has put a thrust on utilising the power of the social media for LeT’s anti-India and anti-United States propaganda.

At the beginning of this year, Pakistani authorities had touted ‘house detention’ of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) Amir, Hafiz Saeed as a credible counter-terrorism measure taken by the government with a spin given by the Army that his arrest was in the ‘national interest’ of Pakistan.

Analyses emanated from Pakistan at that point of time underscored how this crackdown was a fundamental turning point in the country’s drive against terrorist and extremist elements. But clearly this ‘national interest’ and a ‘fundamental step’ is limited to mere symbolism and this farcical drama has not deterred the senior leaders of LeT and its cadres from continuing their activities including holding rallies in various cities of Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK).

In the last few months, one of the major efforts has been directed towards bringing out a sleek propaganda English-language magazine, named Invite. Edited by Muhammad Usama, the magazine ostensibly talks about making Pakistan more tolerant, peaceful and intellectually rich. The quality of the magazine is comparable to the Islamic State’s Rumiyah or the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s Inspire magazines.

In reality, through Invite, Lashkar is seeking to mainstream the extremist ideas in Pakistani society, making them also palatable to the mainstream readers worldwide and shunning the tackiness usually associated with terrorist propaganda.

Some of the topics covered by the magazine include Kashmir issue, growing hostility towards Saudi Arabia, activities of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC), imminent fall of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group and issues related to Islam and blasphemy. Interestingly, this outfit DPC is an umbrella organisation of several anti-India, anti-minorities, sectarian Sunni groups in Pakistan and was actually formed and patronised by ISI.

Now, in one of the issues of the Invite, Hafiz Saeed is described as an educationist and a philanthropist. The article also rues that he was put under house arrest due to the pressure of the Indian lobbies. Even more interestingly, one of the issues ran a cover story on the Jammat-ud-Daawa’s (JuD) vision of countering extremism in Pakistan.

And yet, away from the Invite magazine’s seemingly alluring propaganda, LeT’s calculated violent propaganda continues. Its senior leaders continue to make public appearances spouting venom against India. In a video believed to be shot recently in Lahore, Amir Hamza, Lashkar’s co-founder is seen instigating his cadres to spread violence in India’s North-East region, including Darjeeling and Sikkim.

In order to provoke India, Hamza also praised China and mentioned the Doklam standoff. “We will fight in Sikkim, we will fight in Bhutan, we will fight in Darjeeling, we will fight in Srinagar,” he can be heard saying in the video.

It is pertinent to mention here that just like Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur Rahman Lakhavi, Hamza too had been arrested in Pakistan after the whole world unequivocally condemned the carnage in Mumbai in November 2008, a new but sad entry in the global lexicon of terror as 26/11.

Yet just as those two leaders, Hamza too continues to operate with impunity, while the 26/11 case trial in Pakistani court drags on with more and more accused continuing to be released on bail.

This propaganda comes with a sustained impetus in the last one year to online radicalisation where anti-India themes are selected, pushed and trolled by the cyber teams of LeT. Dedicated Twitter handles such as @DPCOfficial and @SalaarOfficial have been used to trend anti-India hashtags almost on daily basis.

Many reports have also revealed that restricted groups on WhatsApp messenger site being operated by Pakistan/PoK-based group administrators with Kashmiri subscribers where anti-India messages are broadcast and where calls for public mobilisation are given during a counter-insurgency operation. LeT has also held regular workshops - sort of tutorials on using the Virtual Private Network (VPN) - to evade the internet blockade imposed by the state authorities in Jammu and Kashmir to prevent spread of anti-India propaganda and public mobilisation for street protests during counter-insurgency operations.

LeT’s propaganda is not only focussed on India but has also gone to cover Pakistan’s civilian leadership and military. Hafiz Abdul Rahman Makki, who currently heads the JuD, in one of his recent video has termed the Pakistani Army as a puppet of the JuD, adding that the former army chief General Raheel Sharif was heading the 41-nation Islamic military alliance “because of his support to our jihad”.

Just last week after the ouster of then Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Makki appeared on TV channels saying, “Sharif was punished for not supporting jihad.”

Clearly just putting Hafiz Saeed under ‘house arrest’ is not going to impede propaganda activities of LeT or for that matter any extremist group based in Pakistan. As we have already seen that though a number of LeT front organisations have already been under observation or proscribed in Pakistan but they are still working like the Falah-e-Insaniyaat Foundation (FIF).

What is required is a genuine intent among the Pakistani authorities to block the extremist and terrorist group’s public activities, choke their funding sources and contain their social media outreach, rather than playing the ‘terrorist victim card’. Only then Pakistan’s intentions will be trusted. Till then Pakistan will continue to face actions such as the recent one by the Pentagon which has withheld $50 million in reimbursements to Pakistan because it was unable to verify that Islamabad conducted adequate counter-terrorism operations against the Haqqani network.

It remains to be seen whether the Trump administration would really mean business regarding Pakistan’s report card on counter-terrorism measures or it would take a nuanced, politically correct stand apprehending that being too harsh on Pakistan would compel her to be permanently inclined towards China.

To make matters worse, the Jamat-ud-Dawa, considered a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba by the US and India, has launched a new political party, Milli Muslim League, in Pakistan earlier this month, according to media reports.

Saifullah Khalid, long term associate of JuD has been appointed as the President of the party.

Speaking to reporters, Khalid explained his party's viewpoint and stated that they were against secularism and liberalism.

A group of professional politicians have occupied the system, he said. "Those in power want to put this country on the path of liberalism and secularism...because their interests are linked with the West."

The US had a month ago declared its intention of not paying Pakistan any money for its anti-terrorism drive, accusing the former of sheltering terrorists and questioning its contribution towards fighting terrorism.

In its annual Country Reports on Terrorism 2016, the US has accused Pakistan of doing zilch against terrorists other than putting an embargo on media coverage of their activities.

"The Pakistan government supported political reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Afghan Taliban, but failed to take significant action to constrain the ability of the Afghan Taliban and HQN to operate from Pakistan-based safe havens and threaten U.S. and Afghan forces in Afghanistan," the report read.

"The government did not take any significant action against LeT or JeM, other than implementing an ongoing ban against media coverage of their activities. LeT and JeM continued to hold rallies, raise money, recruit, and train in Pakistan.

"The Pakistan government has not joined the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, although it designated ISIS as a terrorist organization in 2015,' it further added.

"Major terrorist groups focused on conducting terrorist attacks in Pakistan included the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Jamaat‑ul‑Ahrar (JuA), and the sectarian group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ). Islamic State’s Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) claimed several major attacks against Pakistani targets, likely conducted in collaboration with other terrorist groups," it said.

"Groups located in Pakistan, but focused on conducting attacks outside the country, included the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani Network (HQN), Lashkar e-Tayyiba (LeT), and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM)," the report read.

Earlier this month, the US accused Pakistan of betraying US' trust and referring them as 'Benedict Arnold ally'.

Benedict Arnold was a 18th century American general, who changed sides to the British and was hence branded as a traitor.