The US pressure on Pakistan to "do more" did not slacken or abate during the seven months Nato supply routes remained suspended and continues to this day with the latest congressional move to table the Haqqani network Terrorist Designation Bill of 2012, a senior official said requesting anonymity.
The US accuses Haqqani network of operating against US-led Nato forces in Afghanistan with bases in the restive tribal areas along Pak-Afghan border.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton renewed her call for Pakistan to deal with the Haqqani network during her recent meeting with Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar in Tokyo.
Reliable sources told Business Recorder that US authorities had also forwarded a list of the measures Islamabad must undertake to squeeze the Haqqanis. Not only does the US ask Pakistan to launch a military operation in North Waziristan, it also expects from the country to disrupt the network's external (Arab) funding sources.
They said the US authorities also wanted Pakistan to take on the alleged 'domestic factories' of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and illegal use of agriculture fertilizers to make land mines, leading to major casualties to international forces in Afghanistan.
Pakistan, according to these sources, is almost ready for "selected" operation against foreign militants believed to be hiding in tribal areas along Pak-Afghan borders but more recently Pakistan has similar concerns about militant attacks from across the border. These concerns have been conveyed to the US authorities time and again, and they have been informed about the sanctuaries of the militants in Nooristan and Kunar provinces of Afghanistan from where they (militants) are attacking Pakistan's tribal areas.
"A serious concern which Pakistan currently has...is to ensure safety of its western borders after the endgame in Afghanistan with withdrawal of the US led Nato forces by 2014", said a security official seeking anonymity. He said that Pakistan will not accept any endgame of the Afghan conflict which aims at giving a key role to India and other 'hostile' forces. Any such move, the official argued, will create serious problems on its 2640 (approximately) kilometers long border with Afghanistan.
According to this source, the US and Pakistan have conflicting views regarding the presence of Haqqani Network: Pakistan believes that the group is no longer operating from its soil and even its top leader Sirajuddin Haqqani has recently said that his network is more comfortable in Afghanistan. Whereas, the US believes that the group still has bases in the tribal areas of Pakistan and mostly in North Waziristan.
The bill introduced in the US congress to declare Haqqani Network a terror outfit, states in its clause 16 (b): "It is the sense of Congress that the Secretary of State should designate the Haqqani Network as a foreign terrorist organization in accordance with section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189).
(c) Statement of Congress- Congress encourages continued and thorough cooperation between the Secretary of State and the intelligence community regarding the Haqqani Network".
Section-2 of the Bill refers to a report of the Congressional Research Service on relations between the United States and Pakistan that '[t]he terrorist network led by Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin, based in the FATA, is commonly identified as the most dangerous of Afghan insurgent groups battling U.S.-led forces in eastern Afghanistan".
The report further states that, in mid-2011, the Haqqanis undertook several high-visibility attacks in Afghanistan and further refers to a late June 2011 assault on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul by eight Haqqani gunmen and suicide bombers that left 18 people dead.
It adds that on September 10, 2011, a truck bomb attack on a United States military base by Haqqani fighters in the Ward province injured 77 United States troops and killed five Afghans. And that September 13, 2011, attack on the United States Embassy compound in Kabul involved an assault that sparked a 20-hour-long gun battle and left 16 Afghans dead, five police officers and at least six children among them. And added that, 'US and Afghan officials concluded the Embassy attackers were members of the Haqqani network.'
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