Two top United States lawmakers have called for "aggressive steps" by America to disrupt operations of the Pakistan-based Haqqani network, saying that Al Qaeda group was responsible for recent surge in attacks in Afghanistan.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militants have found sanctuary in Afghanistan's eastern provinces, which are under the Haqqani network's control, reports B Raman
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.
Amid growing global concern over safety of Pakistan's nuclear arsenals, India today said battlefield atomic weapons of that country were at the heart of such apprehensions.
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.
'Bolstering India's conventional military capability against China is in America's strategic interest,' says military historian Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The resolution, drafted by France and Tunisia, 'demands a general and immediate cessation of hostilities in all situations on its agenda and supports the efforts undertaken by the Secretary-General and his Special Representatives and Special Envoys'.
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.
Hours after controversial Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz failed to turn up before a judicial commission probing the memo scandal, a Pakistani parliamentary committee on Monday summoned him to appear before it on January 26.
The ability of President Hamid Karzai to maintain inter-ethnic unity will determine whether history will be repeated in Afghanistan, says B Raman
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has welcomed the Pakistan government's offer for peace talks with all insurgent groups. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had said recently that his administration was ready to hold negotiations with all militant groups, including the Haqqani network.
Karzai will hold comprehensive talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after which the two countries are expected to ink a strategic pact to streamline the various assistance programmes of India and institutionalise bilateral security dialogue.
The Pentagon on Tuesday said it had shared with Pakistan in recent years the indications of Islamabad's "complicity" with extremist groups, renewing top United States commander Admiral Mike Mullen's allegations that Inter-Services Intelligence was conniving with the Haqqani network in Afghanistan.
Apparently Hina Rabbani Khar, Pakistan's youngest and first female foreign minister, has had it with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen's incessant indictments of Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter Services Intelligence.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the United States joint chiefs of staff, just days before his retirement, has made yet another scathing indictment of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence's perfidy. The spy agency maintains proxies like the Haqqani network for its own strategic depth in Afghanistan, he said.
A Pakistani parliamentarian has demanded that Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha should resign following the claims that he travelled to Arab countries to discuss a move to oust President Asif Ali Zardari.
Ordering a "time-bound" probe into the 'memogate' scandal, Pakistan Supreme Court on Thursday sought responses within 15 days from President Asif Ali Zardari, army and Inter-Services Intelligence chiefs besides others in connection with petitions before it seeking an investigation in to the controversy.
Pakistan on Wednesday named former federal minister Sherry Rehman, a close aide of slain ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, as its new envoy to the United States following the resignation of Ambassador Husain Haqqani over the 'Memogate' controversy.
L'Affaire Ijaz is Pakistan's internal affair. However, the re-surfacing of Ijaz from oblivion could uncomfortably remind us of the naivete of the National Democratic Alliance government which lionised him in 2000-01 and amazingly without verification accepted his claims that he could help in bringing peace to Jammu and Kashmir, writes security expert B Raman
A nine-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry also lifted a foreign travel ban on Pakistan's former ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, who had resigned after the scandal became public.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pakistan on Monday said it will approach Interpol for further probe into the affairs of 'memogate' key figure Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz, and asked the United States to take action against him for violating American laws and making false statements about its raid that killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
"Selling military hardware to Pakistan -- with a generous subsidy from American taxpayers -- is no way to convince them to become responsible players in the international community and assist in the fight against terrorism," Rand Paul said.
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.
International diplomats condemned the assassination of Salmaan Taseer, governor of Pakistan's powerful Punjab province and a key aide of President Asif Ali Zardari.
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.
A top Taliban commander in Pakistan's restive North Waziristan tribal region has threatened to scrap an unofficial peace deal with the army, citing recurring American drone attacks and demolition carried out by the military in Miranshah.
'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 clique that runs that country is treating us like suckers. We are very foolish, giving people money who involve themselves in activity that's harmful to America.' 'When you look at the cold hard facts, Pakistan is not an ally to the United States. They have facilitated, they have encouraged, they have been a protector of enemies.'
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 said that his government is ready to start parleys with Taliban, but evaded questions whether the reconciliation would include the Haqqani faction.
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.
Pakistan's new envoy to the United States, Sherry Rehman, is set to reach Washington on January 9 to occupy the position that was vacated by Husain Haqqani after he was linked to the Memogate scandal.
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.
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