Subhashish Mittra
The decision to blacklist the Haqqani network, announced by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a trip to Russia, appears to have all the ingredients to heighten tensions between Washington and Islamabad. It is a recipe that could have far-reaching implications for any reconciliation process in Afghanistan.
The fact that the Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) notification was rolled out on the eve of talks between India’s External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar indicated conflicting impulses in both Washington and New Delhi on how to tackle Pakistan’s sponsorship of terror through proxies such as Haqqani group and Lashkar-e-Toiba’s Hafiz Saeed through talks and persuasion or through punitive action, diplomatic and beyond.
The fearsome Pakistan-based Haqqani network has been accused of some high-profile attacks. The Haqqanis, a Pashtun tribe with strongholds in south-eastern Afghanistan and across the border in Pakistan, are the most experienced fighters in Afghanistan and are blamed for some of the boldest attacks, including one on embassies and Parliament in Kabul in April that lasted 18 hours.
The Haqqani Network is said to have been behind a string of deadly attacks in Kabul and elsewhere, most prominently including a bombing of the Indian embassy and an assault on the US embassy using rockets. Additionally the group has been linked to an attack on Kabul’s elite Serena and Intercontinental hotels and several kidnappings.
The United States accuses Pakistan’s intelligence agency of supporting the Haqqani network and using it as a proxy in Afghanistan to gain lever age against the growing influence of its arch-rival India in the country.
Pakistan, however, denies the allegations. A senior Pakistani security official said blacklisting the Haqqani network would be counterproductive and would put unnecessary pressure on Islamabad, a strategic US ally. “If the United States wants to have a constructive relationship with Pakistan, then this is a bad move,” the official said. “This will push Pakistan into a corner.”
A spokesman for Pakistan’s embassy in Washington said of the US action : “This is an internal matter for the United States. It is not our business. The Haqqanis are not Pakistani nationals”.
Senior Haqqani commanders, on their part, said the decision showed that the United States was not sincere about peace efforts in Afghanistan. The commanders also said it would bring hardship for America’s only prisoner of war, US Sergeant Bowe Bergadahl, who is being held by the militants.
“They (US) are on the one hand claiming to look for a political solution to the Afghan issue while on the other they are declaring us terrorists’, said one of the commanders, wondering as to how peace talks can succeed in Afghanistan.
The decision to blacklist the Haqqani network might not have been easy. Whether to brand the group as a terrorist organization has been the subject of inense debate within the Obama administration, with some officials arguing it will have little real impact on the battlefield. It could, rather, set back Afghan reconciliation efforts.
Just as the Obama administration was once divided about whether to designate the Haqqani network as a terrorist organization, it has also been split over the extent of the group’s ties to Pakistan’s ISI spy agency. A top US military officer described the Haqqani network as a “veritable arm” of the ISI. But, this was an accusation that some in the Obama administration believed went too far.
There were reports of protracted debate within the administration about the fallout of such a designation, including the effect on its relations with Pakistan, on the drawdown from Afghanistan, and on the dodgy peace talks with sections of the Taliban. The US is also concerned about the fate of Bergdahl.
Most of the Haqqani leaders have already been blacklisted individually.
Still, the Haqqanis run a sophisticated and diverse financial network that has been compared to a mafia group, raising money through kidnapping, extortion and drug trafficking, but through a legitimate business portfolio that included import/export, transport and real estate and construction interests in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Gulf.
US officials were at pains to emphasize that the action was not directed at the Pakistani Government. US -Pakistani ties have only recently begun to stabilize after 16 months of recriminations that began with the US raid to kill Osama bin Ladan on Pakistani soil.
The US move was virtually forced because Congress approved legislation that President Obama signed into law on August 10 giving the Secretary of State 30 days to determine whether the Haqqani network was a terrorist group, and report her decision to lawmakers. The deadline and the designation came at a tricky moment because New Delhi was pushing ahead with the dialogue with Pakistan.
Hence the decision came after two years of “spirited debate” and notwithstanding deep concern within the White House about the fragility of ties between Washington and Islamabad.
The United States has frequently targeted the Haqqanis with military strikes. US and Pakistani officials say they have high confidence that Badruddin Haqqani, a top commander and son of the group’s founder, was killed in a US drone strike last month. “This is a network that has taken a severe beating in recent months,” a Pentagon spokesman said.
In Kabul, a Government spokesman said any move by Washington against the Haqqanis was welcome. “This will be a major step by the United States against the Haqqani network which is still plotting for dangerous and destructive attacks against us,” said an Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel