Pak under pressure on Haqqani network
The US has raised pressure on Pakistan to tackle the Haqqani network, a branch of the Afghan Taliban which operates across the Af-Pak border and is widely suspected of having close ties to the ISI.
Fearing the possibility of attacks against the US emanating from Pakistan, secretary of state Hillary Clinton has called on Islamabad to take further and specific actions against militant networks, BBC reported.
She also said that the US state department was looking into the possibility of listing the Haqqani network as a terrorist organisation.
“We have designated a number of their leaders over the year as terrorists, and we’re now looking at whether and how to describe the group and if it meets the legal criteria for naming it,” she said. Ms Clinton is the second major American leader to have called for listing the Haqqani network as a terrorist body. The idea was first mooted by Sen. Carl Levin, chairman, US Senate Armed Services Committee. The top US commander in Afghanistan, Gen. D. Petraeus, had also taken up the issue with President Obama’s aides. —PTI
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