The Haqqani network, one of the most feared insurgent groups in Afghanistan, would take part in peace talks with the Kabul government and the US only if the Taliban did, its leader Sirajuddin Haqqani told reporters yesterday.
The group has become so confident after battlefield gains that it no longer has sanctuaries in Pakistan and instead felt secure inside Afghanistan, Sirajuddin said in a rare interview by telephone from an undisclosed location.
The militant leader is described by US forces in Afghanistan as one of their most lethal enemies. The US has posted a bounty of up to US$5 million for him.
The Haqqanis rejected several peace gestures from the US and Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government in the past because they were an attempt to “create divisions” between militant groups, he said, adding that any further efforts to do so would fail.
“They offered us very very important positions, but we rejected and told them they would not succeed in their nefarious designs. They wanted to divide us,” he said.
“We would support whatever solution our Shura members suggest for the future of Afghanistan,” he said, referring to the Afghan Taliban leadership.
Washington has repeatedly pressed Pakistan to go after the Haqqani network it believes is based in the unruly North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border.
“Gone are the days when we were hiding in the mountains along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Now we consider ourselves more secure in Afghanistan beside the Afghan people. Senior military and police officials are with us,” said Sirajuddin. “There are sincere people in the Afghan government who are loyal to the Taliban as they know our goal is the liberation of our homeland from the clutches of occupying forces.”
US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told Pakistan on Wednesday that the US would “do everything we can” to defend US forces from Pakistan-based militants staging attacks in Afghanistan.
US officials suspect militants from the Haqqani network were behind Tuesday’s rocket attack on the US embassy compound in Kabul, as well as a recent truck bomb that wounded 77 US troops.
The Haqqani network is perhaps the most divisive issue between allies Pakistan and the US, whose ties have been heavily strained by the unilateral US raid that killed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani town in May.
Pakistan’s Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has long been suspected of maintaining ties with the Haqqani network, cultivated during the 1980s when Sirajuddin’s father, Jalaluddin Haqqani, was a notorious battlefield commander against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.
Pakistan denies allegations it has ties to the Haqqanis.
If it is confirmed that the Haqqanis have left North Waziristan, US pressure on Pakistan to eliminate the group may ease.
Haqqani refrains from attacking the Pakistani state and analysts say Pakistan sees the Haqqanis as a counterweight to the growing influence of rival India in Afghanistan.
Washington has not always regarded the Haqqanis as enemies.
Former US Congressman Charlie Wilson, who raised money for the Afghan anti-Soviet resistance, once called Jalaluddin “goodness personified.” The warrior was held in such high esteem that he visited the White House when during the administration of former US president Ronald Reagan.
Nowadays, the US spends a great deal of time trying to persuade the Pakistanis it is in their interest to eliminate the Haqqanis, for the sake of regional stability.
“We’ve seen in the past what happens when terrorists are given a de facto safe haven, as the Haqqanis have in parts of Pakistan — it doesn’t turn out well for either Pakistan or the United States,” a US official said in Washington. “The open question is whether Pakistan has the will — or the ability — to crack down on the Haqqani network. The US has done its part to degrade the group’s capabilities, but can’t do it entirely on its own.”
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