Pakistan has outlawed the Taliban-linked Haqqani network, officials said on Friday, days after US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government to fight groups that threaten Afghan, Indian and US interests. Senior Pakistani government officials told Reuters a formal announcement of the ban would be made "within weeks".
"We have decided to ban the Haqqani network as a step in implementing the National Action Plan devised after the (Peshawar) school attack," said a cabinet member, referring to a massacre of 134 children by Taliban gunmen last month. "The military and the government are on the same page on how to tackle militancy. There is no more 'good' or 'bad' Taliban.
"Kerry specifically pressed for action against the Haqqanis, including banning the group," the official added. A second official, a minister who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed the decision to outlaw the Haqqani group. Some officials have argued the move would have little battlefield impact but risks setting back Afghan reconciliation efforts and unleashing more attacks against Pakistan. In June last year the Pakistan army launched a long-expected military operation in the troubled North Waziristan region, said to be the base of the Haqqani group.
"Pakistan has done a lot already to disrupt the activities of the Haqqanis...within Pakistan," said a Western diplomat. "But they must also take follow up steps ... to ensure the Haqqanis and other groups are not allowed to regroup or return to sanctuaries, their assets are frozen, their funding is blocked and their networks dismantled."