Pakistan is abondoning Haqqani Network: Afghan media report
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KABUL - The relations between Pakistan and the Haqqani network have started to deteriorate amid rising US pressures and recent political and security developments, it has been reported by Khaama Press.
Pakistan and Afghan officials privy of the development have said the relations between the network and Islamabad have deteriorated after Washington asked Pakistan to take actions against safe havens of the terror groups in its soil.
A Pakistani politician with intimate knowledge of Islamabad’s decade-old support for the Afghan insurgent group has confirmed to Gandhara that the relations between Haqqanis and Pakistan have deteriorated.“Definitely there are strains in the relationship between Rawalpindi and the Haqqani network,” the source speaking on the condition of said.
Quoting key interlocutors in Pakistan’s western Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the politican further added that tensions between the network and Islamabad spurred by Islamabad’s repositioning after Washington’s demand to end militant sanctuaries on its territory.
“Rawalpindi wanted to stagger the network’s operations across the border to avoid U.S. retaliation,” he said.
Accordign to the politician, the Haqqanis were also roiled over Pakistan’s recent rescue of North American hostages because they had wanted to exchange them for their own imprisoned militants.
An Afghan official privy of the developments also confirmed the reports of the deteriorating relations however warned against reading recent developments as proof that Islamabad would abandon the network it has cherished as an ally through cycles of Afghan war since the 1970s.
But he says U.S. pressure on Islamabad and aggressive Afghan and U.S. attacks on the insurgents might prompt the insurgents to take stock.
