Is the United States actually serious to proceed against the Haqqanis this time or is it yet another ploy on the part of the Obama administration to pressurise one of the most influential power players in Afghanistan to join hands with the international community to hold future negotiations with the Taliban? Amir Mir tries to find out.
Slamming Pakistan for refusing to cut ties with the Haqqani network of militants, a leading US daily has said the military of the 'crippled and chaotic' state continues to play a "double game" of accepting aid from America while enabling the Afghan Taliban.
The United States and Pakistan appeared to be heading for renewed collision after a top American General blamed a bloody attack on a Kabul hotel on Pakistan-based Haqqani network and White House vowed to take "necessary steps" to mitigate the threat.
Pakistan missed a valuable opportunity to create goodwill with the United States and other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation members when it failed to announce a reopening of NATO supply routes to Afghanistan at the summit held Sunday and Monday in Chicago, says Lisa Curtis.
Breaking a yearlong silence, the parents of the only American soldier held by Taliban have abruptly made public that he is the focus of a prisoners exchange being negotiated between the Obama administration and the insurgent group.
The ability of President Hamid Karzai to maintain inter-ethnic unity will determine whether history will be repeated in Afghanistan, says B Raman
After accusing Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence of supporting the Haqqani terror network, the Obama administration is now relying on the spy agency to help it organise and begin "reconciliation talks" aimed at ending the war in Afghanistan, a media report said in New York.
The United States has the right to target the Haqqani network that not only kills American troops in Afghanistan, but also sponsors Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, said Senator Carl Levin, who chairs the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will arrive in the Pakistani capital on Thursday for talks aimed at pressing the country's leadership to crack down on the Haqqani network to facilitate the process of reconciliation in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Branded as a "veritable arm" of the Inter-Services Intelligence, the Haqqani network's operational chief Sirajuddin Haqqani has claimed that his group did not kill Burhanuddin Rabbani and denied any links with the Pakistani spy agency.
With the United States and Pakistan engaged in a war of words, China on Friday sprung to the defence of its 'all weather ally', asking Washington to respect Islamabad's sovereignty and territorial integrity while fighting its war on terror.
In a severe indictment of Pakistan's links with terror groups, top United States military commander on Thursday said the Inter-Services Intelligence provided support to the Haqqani terror network in carrying out the recent attack on the country's embassy in Kabul.
US troops after 10 years in Afghanistan are in the same position as the Soviet troops after eight years were in 1987 --victory increasingly elusive, says B Raman.
Australian foreign minister Marise Payne and defence minister Peter Dutton will visit India from September 10 to 12 to take part in the dialogue with their Indian counterparts.
The Inter-Services Intelligence does not act independently and takes instructions from Pakistani army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, says a former top aide of United States President Barack Obama, asserting that the spy agency has links with the dreaded Haqqani network of Taliban.
Angry over Pakistan's lackluster cooperation in the war on terror, top US Senators have introduced amendments that would make it tough for government in Washington to give military and civilian aid to Islamabad unless it takes concrete steps against militant groups like Haqqani network and LeT.
The unclassified five-page overview of the Afghanistan-Pakistan annual policy update unveiled by United States President Barack Obama on Thursday tends to sugar-coat the situation in the region.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday again pressed Pakistan to act against terrorist safe havens, pointing out that militant groups have for long operated with impunity in the country and should not be tolerated.
Pakistan on Friday said Afghanistan should properly check its facts before making allegations that a plot to kill Afghan President Hamid Karzai was hatched on its soil. The Afghan intelligence agency said on Thursday that it had thwarted a plot to assassinate Karzai by arresting a bodyguard and five persons with links to the Haqqani network and the Al Qaeda. Officials said the plot had its origins in Pakistan's Waziristan tribal region.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has claimed "victory" in the recent stand-off with the United States, saying he has received a message from Washington that America needs Pakistan's support to win the war on terror.
As much as the Haqqani network seems to have catapulted to being the flavour of the day in terms of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence-supported terrorist groups in South Asia, a senior State Department official declared that the other ISI-proxy, the Lashkar-e-Tayiba -- responsible for the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai -- is equally on even more dangerous.
The United States was aware of Pakistan's "duplicitous role" in the war on terror long before its top military commander Mike Mullen branded the dreaded Haqqani network of Taliban a "veritable arm" of Inter Services Intelligence, a media report said on Tuesday.
Pakistan's border region remains the most dangerous place in the world and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas remains the epicentre of the world's worst of global jihad, a top Pentagon official has said.
Hardening its stance on terror safe havens in Pakistan, the United States has made it clear to Islamabad that time is over for hedging its bets on terror groups like Haqqani network, the Afghan Taliban or the LeT against India.
Tired of the alleged "double game" being played by Islamabad, American lawmakers have announced to hold a Congressional hearing next week to discuss whether Pakistan is a "friend or foe" of the US in the war on terror.
At least 11 militants, linked to the dreaded Haqqani network, were killed and several more injured when United States drones on Monday attacked a car and a compound in Pakistan's restive Kurram tribal region, which has rarely been targeted by the CIA-operated unmanned spy planes.
It's high time to completely rethink the United States relationship with Pakistan because of Islamabad's continuing perfidy of sponsoring terror groups like the Haqqani network and Lakshar-e-Tayiba that targets American troops and kills innocent civilians like the LeT did during the 26/11 attacks, said US Congressman Gary Ackerman, top democrat in the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on South Asia.
China would avoid giving the impression of taking sides with Pakistan in its dispute with the US on the question of action against the Haqqani network, says B Raman.
Days after Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani called for an end to drone attacks in his country, unmanned American spy planes today unleashed 10 missiles at a compound in the volatile North Waziristan, killing at least 25 people, including civilians.
As pressure mounted on Islamabad to move against the Haqqani network, accused by United States of carrying out a spate of attacks in Kabul, Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha rushed to Washington to hold a quite meeting with the new Central Investigation Agency head Gen David Petraeus.
A senate panel has approved a legislation which blocks $300 million United States military aid to Pakistan.
Top US officials are unhappy over some Inter-Services Intelligence elements continuing to support the Haqqani network to counter India's presence in the region, amid fears that Pakistani military is "unable or unwilling" to act against Taliban and Al Qaeda in the restive tribal belt.
Apparently frustrated over Pakistan military's inaction against the dreaded Haqqani network, the United States has unleashed a wave of drone attacks killing dozens of militants in North Waziristan, a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, this month.
All those killed in the strike were members of the Haqqani network, led by Afghan warlord Sirajuddin Haqqani, said local journalists.
Senior analyst B Raman scrutinises the terror attack on Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel and says its another bid of the Taliban and the Haqqani Network to make their presence felt.
Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has rubbished media reports of him organising a secret meeting between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Haqqani network commander Sirajuddin Haqqani in Kabul last month.
"Indeed, nearly all of the jihadi groups operating in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, the Pakistani Taliban, the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani network, LeT, and others have joined together in an extended terrorist network that shares the same goals, including destabilising Afghanistan and destroying the Pakistani state," said Congressman Howard Berman, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
The United States has slapped sanctions on Badruddin Haqqani, a "dangerous" commander of Pakistan-based Haqqani network, in a bid to check the flow of financial and other aid to him, though it said it currently had no plans to designate the Al Qaeda-linked group as a foreign terrorist organisation.
Vicky Nanjappa predicts embarrasing days ahead for Pakistani intelligence agency ISI in the aftermath of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's killing
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances