As the US has now, after the elimination of Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, focused itself on locating the whereabouts of other equally dangerous enemies, Pakistan on Tuesday arrested a “senior Al Qaeda operative Muhammad Ali Qasim Yaqub alias Abu Sohaib Al Makki” with authorities claiming to unravel the Al Qaeda network with this development.
The US not only wants Pakistani authorities to help it locate Ayman al-Zawahiri and other Al Qaeda leaders such as Saiful Adal who Washington believes are currently in Pakistan, but it has also asked for a military operation in North Waziristan against the Haqqani network. Though the authorities claim that Al Makki is a senior Al Qaeda operative, he is not on the FBI’s list of the most wanted terrorists.
“According to preliminary investigations, Al Makki is a Yemeni national and has been working directly under the Al Qaeda leaders along the Pak-Afghan border. His arrest is a major development in unravelling the Al Qaeda network operating in the region,” the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said. Senator John Kerry conveyed these demands to Islamabad in his meetings with the country’s top civilian and military leadership on Monday.
The Obama administration wants Pakistan to sever its ties with the Haqqani network and the other Taliban factions like North Waziristan-based Taliban group led by Hafiz Gul Bahadar and South Waziristan-based Mullah Nazir group. Both these factions are considered by the US as close to Pakistan’s military and the ISI and that is why, they say, these groups have been dubbed by Islamabad as ‘good Taliban’ like the Haqqani network which is led by veteran Jihadi commander, Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Siraj Haqqani.
“The US has accelerated its efforts to reach out to the Taliban directly after the killing of bin Laden by its special forces in Abbottabad on May 2 in a covert military operation about which Pakistan was kept in dark. The US representatives have held meetings with the Taliban officials recently in Germany and Qatar but these talks are being held with the Taliban-led by Mullah Omar, excluding the Haqqani network,” a Pakistani diplomat said on Tuesday requesting anonymity.
He said Senator Kerry had made it clear to the Pakistani officials that the US could not hold talks with the Haqqani network as it is close to Al Qaeda and unlike the Mullah Omar-led Quetta Shura of the Taliban, it could not be veered away from the Zawihiri and his other commanders. Senator Kerry said in order to have meaningful dialogue with the Taliban, it was necessary to dismantle the Haqqani network and also kill or capture its leaders along with Zawahiri and other Al Qaeda militants.
Washington wants some results on the ground in Afghanistan before July when the US is supposed to start the withdrawal of its forces from the war-torn country. However, that is not possible before there is some peace in Afghanistan and the key to that objective is with the Taliban. A security official when contacted said no doubt the US wanted Pakistan to launch military operation against the Haqqani network and Islamabad had no problem with that.
However, he added that a political consensus was the major pre-requisite for the success of any such operation the way it happened in Swat. He said that the upcoming visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Islamabad by the end of this month and before that another trip by US special representative Mark Grossman that is expected by this weekend, were crucial in working out the details of verbal agreement reached at between Islamabad and Washington during Senator Kerry’s visit on working together to eliminate the “high value targets” in militant cadres in future.
He said it would be during Hillary’s visit that a final decision would be made by the two sides about launching an operation in North Waziristan apart from how to reach and take out top Al Qaeda leaders.