WWhat Pakistan faces in the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan is virulent insurgency and terrorism, fuelled by its association with Al Qaeda
"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.
'We're paying them nothing because that's what they've done to help us. Nothing'
In a blunt message to Pakistan, the United States has said that continued existence of terror safe havens in the country and its inability to take action against them affects their bilateral ties including security assistance.
In a major crackdown to eliminate the terrorists' sanctuaries, Afghanistan has carried out three air strikes within a week in Kunar province, bordering Pakistan, inflicting heavy casualties on Lashkar-e-Tayiba terror group.
The United States has said that the threat from terrorist groups, in particular the Haqqani network, continues to emanate from inside Pakistan, dismissing top Pakistani diplomat's claim that the dreaded group responsible for audacious attacks in Afghanistan has been wiped out.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has refuted the whining of Pakistan's Ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani who had contended in a recent article in the Wall Street Journal that the main reason Pakistan's counter-insurgency efforts this far against the Taliban and other extremist groups was because it had not been provided with proper equipment --attack helicopters and night visions goggles -- by the United States as promised.
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.
Pakistan, the report said, has played an active, and by many accounts, a negative role in Afghan affairs for decades.
A little-known website claimed that the Indian engineer was killed on orders from ISI.
The US State Department, in its Congressional mandated annual Country Reports on Terrorism for the year 2018, on Friday said even though the Pakistani government voiced support for political reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Taliban, it did not restrict the terror group and the Haqqani Network from operating in Pakistan-based safe havens and threatening the US and Afghan forces in Afghanistan.
At least eight people were killed and six others injured when two missiles fired by a suspected US drone hit a 'madrassa' founded by a Taliban leader in Pakistan's restive tribal region. The drone fired missiles at Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani's madrassa located a few kilometres from North Waziristan Agency's main town of Miranshah, late Wednesday night.
With this, the DoD has reprogrammed USD 800 million CSF destined for Pakistan.
As a result, as per the House version of the Bill, the Obama administration must certify that Pakistan has met before releasing $450 million in aid.
14 people, including three women, were killed and 20 others injured in missile strikes by suspected unmanned US drones on a seminary linked to top Taliban Commander Jalaluddin Haqqani in Pakistan's restive North Waziristan tribal region on Monday.
In the last year since the Indian embassy in Kabul was bombed on July 7, allegedly by the Sirajuddin Haqqani faction of the Taliban based in Pakistan's North Waziristan province, India has well and truly joined in United States president Barack Obama's 'AfPak strategy' that is aimed at jointly looking at Afghanistan and Pakistan as the expanded theatre of war against the Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
'The real purpose of President Obama writing to President Zardari,' Husain Haqqani tells Rediff.com's Aziz Haniffa, 'was to seek a turnaround on terrorism -- that Pakistan, whatever its grievances, cannot have jihadi groups operating openly on its soil.'
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.
India should not have a large bilateral military training program in Afghanistan in the future because that would predictably exacerbate tensions, says Director of research, Brookings Institution Michael O'Hanlon.
On Monday, Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesperson Tasnim Aslam during a media briefing declined to answer a question relating to the kidnapping saying that she had no information on it.
Peace and reconciliation cannot go forward in an atmosphere of terror, India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin said in the United Nations on Tuesday.
The US has been in discussions with Pakistan but there has been not a 'sufficient amount of action' from it against terrorists.
Sixteen top Taliban militants, including Mullah Fazlullah, planned the deadly Peshawar school massacre during a meeting held in Afghanistan in early December, Pakistani officials said on Thursday.
A Congressional Committee in its budgetary proposals for the year 2013 has prohibited economic and security assistance to Pakistan till it co-operates with the United States in the fight against terrorism and takes action against groups such as Haqqani Network, Taliban, Al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Tayiba.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in the 2020 Country Reports on Terrorism issued on Thursday, said that regionally, terrorist groups continued to operate from Pakistan.
Possibility of yet another Mumbai-style attack in India cannot be ruled out and such a threat will arise if the Taliban or Haqqani network succeed in seizing large parts of Southern Afghanistan, a veteran Indian diplomat has said.
Defence Secretary Ashton Carter declined to give a certification to the Congress that Pakistan is taking sufficient action against the dreaded Haqqani network.
'Just this week, the Indians killed a Kashmiri terrorist, who is a member of Hizbul Mujahideen.' 'This is a nasty terrorist organisation, and did Pakistan welcome this killing?' 'No, in fact, they denounced it and referred to him as a Kashmiri separatist.' 'These Kashmiri terrorist groups have been aided by the Pakistani State.'
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.
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.
The US wants action against the existing safe havens of the Taliban and the Haqqani network and demolish its ability to carry out strikes across the border in Afghanistan.
The ability of President Hamid Karzai to maintain inter-ethnic unity will determine whether history will be repeated in Afghanistan, says B Raman
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.
The US and others have long complained that Pakistan provides safe haven to the Afghan Taliban and their allies, the Haqqani network.
'US counter-terrorism policy was encouraging and emboldening the Indians to deal with the problem of Pakistani-supported terrorism once and for all.' 'The US had been trying to browbeat Pakistan into doing what it wants, with very limited success.'
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.
The suspension of US aid to Pakistan, which was announced by President Donald Trump in January 2018, remained in effect throughout 2019, the State Department said.
The United States has given Pakistan a deadline till July to launch a military offensive in the restive North Waziristan tribal region for capturing five most wanted al-Qaeda and Taliban terrorists, including Ayman al-Zawahiri, Mullah Omar and Ilyas Kashmiri.
Indian assets and personnel in Kabul could come under fresh attacks in the near future with intelligence inputs suggesting that terror groups like Haqqani faction of Taliban have recently been enquiring about Indian projects and residential complexes of those working on these.
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