The U.S. on Saturday accused Pakistan Government of having links with the Haqqani network, which Washington holds responsible for last week’s attack on the American Embassy in Kabul. Though the U.S. has long been asking Pakistan to go after the Haqqani network, this direct charge was leveled against the Pakistan Government by Washington's Ambassador in Islamabad, Cameron Munter, in an interview to Radio Pakistan.
But even as Washington is using the Kabul attack to mount pressure on Islamabad to act against the Haqqani network - believed to be in North Waziristan along the Durand Line - the group's leader Sirajuddin Haqqani on Saturday told Reuters that it no longer had sanctuaries in Pakistan and had moved back to Afghanistan where it felt secure.
Mr. Munter minced no words despite Islamabad on Thursday protesting the more nuanced remarks on the same lines by U. S. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta after the Kabul attack. Reacting to his threat of unilateral action against the Haqqani network - also held responsible for the attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul -- the Pakistan Foreign Office reminded Washington that its cooperation on terror-related issues was premised on respect for the country's sovereignty and entails joint actions.
In what is yet another round of public sparring after a few weeks of lull, Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani threw the ‘do more’ phrase back at the U.S. over the weekend; stating that Pakistan had done a lot in the fight against terrorism and now it was time the U.S. made similar sacrifices. Elsewhere in Spain, at the NATO Chiefs of Defence meeting, Chief of Army Staff Ashfaq Parvez Kayani underlined Pakistan's sovereign right to formulate policy in accordance with its national interest.
The Haqqani claim of having returned to Afghanistan is in line with the Pakistani strategic establishment’s contention that there were terrorist havens west of the Durand Line from where repeated attacks were being launched on its border posts; the latest being on Sunday evening in Lower Dir. Islamabad has time and again held NATO and Afghanistan responsible for these attacks; stating that negligible security on the Afghan side of the border with Pakistan allowed terrorists to use these areas as safe havens and mount attacks on Pakistani forces and isolated villages along the border.
While confirming that the group had been hiding in Pakistan, Sirajuddin Haqqani in his rare interview said: “Gone are the days when we were hiding in the mountains along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Now we consider ourselves more secure in Afghanistan besides the Afghan people. Senior military and police officials are with us. There are sincere people in the Afghan government who are loyal to the Taliban as they know our goal is the liberation of our homeland from the clutches of the occupying forces.”
Keywords: U.S.-Pak relations, terrorism, Haqqani network
The US is seen as an occupying force amongst the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Their fight against NATO in Afghanistan is wholly justified. It is said that a Pushtun would remove the skin of an enemy with a razor blade without giving it a second thought, but break into tears if his daughter grazed her knee. The people of Waziristan are used to being bombed. They've been bombed for over a century now. The British used aerial bombardment and the Americans use their drones. What is clear is that these people do not submit to any form of intimidation or force, and they never will.
It would be unwise for Pakistan to hunt down the Haqqanis at the request of the US. Besides, it is because of the US occupation of Afghanistan that Pakistan's economy and people have suffered an incalculable loss. The US needs to go.
The war on terror started to end the menance but it resulted in the alienation of muslims and a new game whose ground is Afpak region where every nation plays its shorts. The region's devastation is the manifestation of worlds international equation.
Fact is pakistan is not finding it as easy as in case of india to use terror as a policy of securing strategic goals.but it will still clutch onto it.pak state is in a deep STATE OF DECAY.It has no other viable option left to project its power and secure its strategic goals .Its international reputation is tattered, economy ruined, fundamentalism is entrenched there. It has no moral force left to make nation consider its demands.so its now using its nuisance value to blavkmail other nations.but it will inevitably lead it into a deeper quagmire.
By stating that Pakistan has a "sovereign right to formulate policy in accordance with its national interest" Chief of Army Staff Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has virtually admitted that it will continue to use terrroism to further its foreign policy goals. The US should deal sternly with this rogue nation.
World has to take some serious decisions against Pakistan for the sake
of peace in the world!!
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