- Envoy says Haqqani Network on the run after security offensives in tribal areas
Pakistan’s Ambassador to United Sates Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry has said that blaming Pakistan for failures in Afghanistan will not help improve the security situation in either country.
Pakistan and Afghanistan should work together on counter-terrorism operations, he said in an interview with The Washington Times newspaper. He vehemently denied Afghan accusations that the Haqqani Network is operating from North Waziristan region.
“The Haqqani Network is on the run, as far as we are concerned, in the wake of large-scale counter-terrorism offensives in the North Waziristan elsewhere within Pakistan’s tribal region,” Aizaz said. Talking about the terrorist attack in Kabul, he strongly denied accusations by the Afghan intelligence that the Haqqani Network was responsible for the massive truck bomb, which killed 90 people and wounded over 400 and decimated Kabul’s diplomatic sector.
“It is outright barbaric terrorism, and we should condemn it with all the might that we have. The attack should serve to strengthen our resolve to work with Kabul on counterterrorism operations,” he added. The attack was one of the worst suicide attacks to hit the capital since US and NATO forces ended combat operations in the country back in 2014.
Aizaz noted that only Afghan intelligence officials had linked the Haqqanis to the blast, adding the government of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had yet to endorse the findings. “How Afghan intelligence officials were able to determine responsibility for the strike so quickly,” he also questioned.
“If you were so good, that within seconds of the attack you can know who did it, then you should have also known when they were coming,” he quipped. “It is too simplistic to say all of these problems are because of Pakistan and we have not entered into this blame game because of that,” he said.
