Tag Archives: Haqqani Network

The Trump administration will struggle to put the squeeze on Pakistan, no matter how tight its grip.

It’s about time to act like a self-respecting and confident nation which is ready to correct its own course as well as being poised to address others’ concerns on issues such as terrorism, regional peace and cooperation, opines one Pakistani analyst.

Pakistan faces the unavoidable specter of an ever-growing Indo-US-Afghan alliance that  requires it to do more in the anti-terror fight. It also needs to clean up its image that became tainted because of its alliances with or support for non-state actors.

The US seems to view Pakistan through the “Afghanistan Prism” ever since Barack Obama became the US President Obama. Islamabad must create its own space to not only establish but cement its relevance to the US, otherwise the geo-political configuration of this region will continue to remain uncertain and undefined.

Regardless of what Afghan leaders say the India-factor remains imposing in Kabul’s governance and security structures. It drives apprehensions — however misplaced — in Islamabad. Alleviating those apprehensions in a credible way would probably be the key to turn a leaf in Pak-Afghan relations.

The ISIL is getting foothold in Afghanistan whose weak government has no counter-terrorism strategy to deal with the emerging threat, warns one Afghan analyst.

The attack on the Afghan parliament was a grim reminder the militants are hard to vanquish on the battlefield. The spike in violence has put Afghanistan’s rag-tag security forces under more pressure than at any time in the past six months.

Since 2010, there has been a 58 percent increase in the number of jihadist groups, a doubling of jihadist fighters and a tripling of attacks by al Qa'ida affiliates. The most significant threat to the U.S., a new study concludes, comes from terrorist groups operating in Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

When American special forces plucked the second in command of the Pakistani Taliban from the hands of Afghan officials this October, they laid bare the extent of a largely covert war between Afghanistan and Pakistan that has been going on for several years. With a drawdown – perhaps even to zero – of U.S. troops from Afghanistan next year, the …

Guns have fallen silent in Mirali — a bustling town 35km to the east of North Waziristan’s regional headquarters of Miramshah, but now with rows of burnt down and bombed shops and houses.   The sudden flare-up and military’s fierce response to a suicide bombing at one of its main camps in Khajori on Dec 18 have shown that the …