The relations between Pakistan and the notorious Haqqani terrorist network have started to deteriorate amid rising US pressures and recent political and security developments, Afghanistan’s Khaama Press reported on the authority of “unnamed Pakistani and Afghan officials”.
Pakistan and Afghan officials have told the Afghan media that the relations between the network and Islamabad have deteriorated after Washington increased pressures on Pakistan to take actions against safe havens of the terror groups on its soil.
“Definitely there are strains in the relationship between Pakistan and the Haqqani network,” a Pakistani official said speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Quoting “interlocutors” in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the politician added that tensions between the Haqqanis and Islamabad were spurred by Pakistan’s repositioning after Washington’s demand to end militant sanctuaries on its territory.
According to the politician who spoke to Khaama Press, the Haqqanis were also upset over Pakistan’s recent rescue of a Canadian-American couple and their three children who they wanted to exchange for their imprisoned comrades.
The Pakistan Army, operating on intelligence provided by the United States, rescued Caitlan Coleman, her husband Joshua Boyle and their children soon after their captors, the Haqqanis, transported them from Afghanistan into Kurram Agency earlier this month.
An Afghan official also confirmed the reports of deteriorating relations.
He also said that Pakistan’s influence over the Afghan Taliban has diminished since a US drone strike killed the group’s leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, in May, last year, derailing talks aimed at bringing peace to Afghanistan.
Pakistan has said the drone strike in Balochistan that killed Mansoor was meant to sabotage the peace initiative of the Quardrilateral Coordination Group (QCG).
In August, President Donald Trump unveiled his strategy for Afghanistan and South Asia. In his policy speech, he criticised Pakistan for sheltering “agents of chaos” — a reference to the Afghan Taliban and their cohorts — in “safe havens” on its soil.
Islamabad has dismissed Trump’s tirade and advised him to stop listening to his “failed generals” on Afghanistan who are reluctant to concede military defeat — and instead seek advice from American politicians.
“We are not saying that we are saints. Perhaps in the past, we made some mistakes. But since the last three, four years we are wholeheartedly, single-mindedly … targeting these terrorists,” Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif said while speaking at an American think tank during his recent visit to the United States.
President Trump is seeking a military victory in the deadliest, costliest and longest war in American history. Pakistan, however, believes the use of military force could not end the conflict — and that dialogue is the only way to restore peace in the war-ravaged country.