Islamabad, Aug. 6 (ANI): Referring to recent media reports stating that the United States and Pakistan are considering a joint campaign against the Haqqani Network and the Afghan Taliban, an editorial in a Pakistani daily has said if Pakistan is willing to recognise the Haqqani network as enemies of the country for helping those waging war against the state (the TTP), this could be a significant positive step.
ISI chief Lieutenant General Zaheer-ul-Islam in his interactions with the head of the CIA, General Petraeus and other high officials of the Obama administration during his visit to Washington conveyed a startlingly new message, the editorial in the Daily Times said.
The message in essence recognizes that the Haqqani network, once the ISI's proxies, have gone rogue. Their nexus with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has been transformed into an alliance in which the Haqqanis attack the US/NATO forces in Afghanistan, while allowing the TTP to use safe havens in the eastern provinces of Afghanistan in the Haqqanis' control to attack Pakistani troops across the border. It follows logically from this development that Pakistan and the U.S. have a mutual interest in cooperating against what may increasingly become a common threat to both, it said.
The 'division of labour' between the Haqqanis and the TTP may not hold, particularly if Pakistan and the U.S. have agreed to conduct a joint campaign against the Haqqanis and TTP. Naturally the operational details of this campaign have not been revealed, but they do pose ticklish questions, it further said.
For example, if Pakistan has agreed to an operation against the Haqqani network in North Waziristan, how would this be conducted and by whom? If Pakistani forces launch the military offensive in North Waziristan, and the U.S./NATO move against the TTP in the border areas, this would require an unprecedented level of cooperation between Pakistan and the U.S.
Both sides are discussing a refurbished counter-insurgency approach that does not exclusively focus on killing militants, but puts in place the structures of governance that would help prevent a resurgence of the extremists after the first flush of the military offensive is over, it concluded. (ANI)
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