The Americans are upping the ante, will we see a full fledge American involvement in NWA and other tribal agencies now??
US can prove Pakistan’s ties with HaqqanisFrom the Newspaper
ISLAMABAD: The United States accused Pakistan on Saturday of having ties with the Haqqani network, a group which Washington held responsible for an assault earlier this week on the US embassy in Kabul and also for attacks on Nato troops across Afghanistan.
“The attack that took place in Kabul a few days ago, that was the work of the Haqqani network,” Cameron Munter, the US ambassador to Islamabad, told Radio Pakistan in an interview aired on Saturday.
“There is evidence linking the Haqqani network to the Pakistan government. This is something that must stop.”
Militants in a bomb-laden truck occupied a building in Kabul on Tuesday, raining rockets and gunfire on the US embassy and other targets in the diplomatic quarter of the Afghan capital, and battled police during a 20 hour siege.
Five Afghan policemen and 11 civilians were killed in the multi-pronged attacks, which also included three suicide bombings at police compounds.
Cameron Munter suggested ties with Pakistan were still heavily strained, despite recent comments from both sides on strong counter-terrorism cooperation.
“These relations today need a lot of work,” he said.
Observers in Washington interpreted the interview as supporting speculations that the US had now decided to take direct military action against the Haqqani network with or without Pakistan’s support.
Washington has long accused Islamabad of sheltering militants who carry out attacks inside Afghanistan. Islamabad says its forces are taking high casualties fighting militants, and dismisses any allegation it provides support for fighters.
Defence Secretary Leon Panetta warned Pakistan on Wednesday the United States would “do everything we can” to defend US forces from Pakistan-based militants staging attacks in Afghanistan.
The Haqqani network is perhaps the most divisive issue between the two allies. The United States has repeatedly pressed Pakistan to go after the network, which it believes is based in North Waziristan.
Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani virtually ruled out a full-scale operation against the Haqqani network on Friday. At a meeting of Nato’s defence chiefs in Seville, Spain, he reiterated Pakistan’s “resolve and commitment” in the struggle against terrorism, but at the same time stressed that Islamabad had the “sovereign right to formulate policy in accordance with its national interests”.—Reuters
Anwar Iqbal adds from Washington: The United States has been quietly taking legal action to link the Haqqani network of terrorists to Pakistan long before the US ambassador went public with the allegation.
The US State Department took first such legal action on March 25, 2009. In a recently released joint article, Senator Dianne Feinstein, chairperson of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the US Senate Armed Services Committee, also blamed Pakistan for backing the Haqqani network and other militant groups.
“Most disturbing are Pakistan’s continuing ties to extremist militant groups, particularly the Haqqani group in North Waziristan and the Afghan Taliban shura in and around Quetta,” they wrote.
“Pakistan provides safe harbor to the Haqqani insurgent group responsible for attacks against US and coalition forces across the border in Afghanistan. Regardless of what Pakistan knew about Bin Laden’s whereabouts, the Haqqani sanctuaries are well-known.”
Senator Feinstein told a recent congressional hearing that the Pakistani army resisted attacking North Waziristan and the Haqqanis because it wanted to use the group to influence future political changes in Afghanistan.
But long before US officials and lawmakers went public with their complaints, the US State Department had been quietly highlighting Pakistan’s alleged link to the network. In its March 25, 2009, executive order, which offered a $5 million reward for information leading to the location, arrest, or conviction of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the State Department clearly said that the terrorist leader was “located in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan”. The department also claimed that Sirajuddin Haqqani used his sanctuaries inside Pakistan to coordinate cross-border attacks on US and coalition forces in Afghanistan and also had participated in some of these attacks.
On July 23, 2010, the then State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley, noted that all UN members must implement a travel ban restriction, asset freeze and arms embargo against leaders of the Haqqani network. “Pakistan, as a UN member, must implement this international action,” he added.
On May 11, 2011, the State Department designated another network leader Badruddin Haqqani, a foreign terrorist commander who “operates from North Waziristan Agency” in Fata. “Badruddin sits on the Miramshah Shura, which has command and control over all Haqqani network activities, and helps lead insurgents and foreign fighters in attacks against targets in southeastern Afghanistan,” the announcement said.
“In Nov 2008, Badruddin accepted responsibility for keeping New York Times reporter David Rohde” who also was kept in Fata, the State Department said.
On Aug 16 this year, the State Department designated Sangeen Zadran, the shadow governor for Paktika province, a foreign terrorist associated with the Haqqani network.
Sangeen is accused of bringing the network’s fighters from Fata for carrying out attacks inside Afghanistan and also of kidnapping Afghans and foreigners in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The annual US State Department report on terrorism in South Asia, released on Aug 18 this year, claimed that groups such as the Taliban’s Quetta Shura and the Haqqani Network were using “western Pakistan to plan attacks against American interests in Afghanistan”.
The groups had increased their use of improvised explosive devices and coordinated attacks using multiple suicide bombers in Afghanistan, “while their leadership remained hiding in their safe havens in Pakistan”, the report said.