Islamabad, April 20: Pakistan’s spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has ties with the Haqqani network that poses threat in Afghanistan, America’s top military commander said Wednesday
“All that said, we’re still working through the (Pakistani) military support, the way through the relationships the (Pakistani inter-service intelligence agency) has with the Haqqani network, and the strain that creates,” Xinhua quoted Admiral Mike Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff as saying as he started his two-day Pakistan visit.
The Haqqani network is an independent insurgent group in Afghanistan and Pakistan that is closely allied with the Taliban.
Mullen said that the Pakistani military knows the threat the Haqqani network poses in Afghanistan, but that their first focus is on the Pakistani Taliban that threatens their government in Islamabad.
But the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, the Afghan security forces and the Pakistanis have cooperated, the admiral said.
“We have chased bad guys into their network, and (the Pakistanis) have hammered them, and vice versa,” Mullen said. This is particularly true on the border shared by Pakistan and Afghanistan’ s Khost province, he added.
The Haqqani network had almost a free rein in the region, Mullen said, but this has changed over the past year.
“Haqqani is having a much more difficult time now,” he said, adding “we’ve all known Haqqani, in particular, is the heart of the problem in supporting the Taliban and sending fighters into Afghanistan, and we think we are in much better shape with respect to making it much more difficult for the Haqqanis this year.”
Mullen arrived in Islamabad Wednesday on a two-day visit.
Mullen is scheduled to meet the army chief General Ashfaq Parvaiz Kayani and government leaders.
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