Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani statement was issued after the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff accused Pakistan’s military-run spy agency of links to a powerful militant faction fighting in Afghanistan. — Reuters Photo
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani army on Thursday rejected the notion that it was not doing enough to fight militants, hours after the top US military officer accused the country’s military-run spy agency of continued links to a powerful Taliban faction fighting in Afghanistan.
The back and forth reflected the unusually poor state of relations between the two counter-terrorism allies, which sunk to new lows after an American CIA contractor in January shot two Pakistanis he said were trying to rob him.
While on one hand both US and Pakistani officials have spoken of the need to keep the partnership intact, especially as Washington looks for a way out of Afghanistan, officials from both countries have also made strong, even harsh, statements defending their actions.
While visiting Pakistan on Wednesday, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, told a private TV channel that he would bring up the issue of Pakistan’s ties to the militant Haqqani network when he saw Pakistani army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
The Haqqani network is a powerful, largely independent Afghan Taliban faction with bases in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal region. It is considered one of the most lethal fighting forces battling US and NATO troops in Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s military-run Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency forged links to the network’s leaders that date back to the 1980s Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. But after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Pakistan has insisted it has cut its ties to the network.
Still, many analysts and US officials suspect Pakistan may be trying to retain its links to the Haqqanis so that it can use them as a means of retaining influence in Afghanistan, and keeping a bulwark against archrival India, after the Americans leave.
“The ISI has a long-standing relationship with the Haqqani network, that doesn’t mean everybody in the ISI but it’s there. I believe over time that has got to change,” Mullen said in the private TV channel interview.
In a statement issued after he saw Mullen, Kayani did not mention the Haqqanis, and said both sides were determined not to let their relationship collapse.
But he rejected “negative propaganda of Pakistan not doing enough,” and pointed to its multiple military offensives against various insurgent groups as evidence of Pakistan’s “national resolve to defeat terrorism.”
Kayani also slammed the ongoing US missile strikes in Pakistan. Those strikes almost always hit North Waziristan, where the Haqqanis are based and the one tribal region along the Afghan border where Pakistan has not staged an offensive despite US pleas.
Pakistan has long denounced the drone-fired missile strikes as violations of its sovereignty, but the South Asian nation is widely believed to secretly cooperate with at least some of the attacks.
In recent weeks, however, Kayani has spoken out against the strikes. In mid-March, he issued a strong statement denouncing on such attack after it killed nearly 40 people. While the US insisted the group consisted of militants, Kayani said dozens of mostly innocent tribesmen died.
That strike came the day after the US secured the release of American CIA contractor Raymond Davis by paying the families of the two shooting victims’ so-called “blood money.” The Davis case badly strained relations, with Pakistan refusing to take a stand on whether Davis had diplomatic immunity from prosecution as the US embassy claimed.
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