ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Pakistani government has decided to ban Haqqani network, a Taliban-allied militant group based on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghan border.
The decision to outlaw the group was taken after the US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take action against militant groups including Haqqani network because they are threat to Pakistan, the US, India and other countries.
Kerry was in Islamabad earlier this week to lead his country’s delegation in the two-day ministerial level meeting of the Pakistan-US Strategic Dialogue.
“We have decided to ban the Haqqani network as a step in implementing the National Action Plan devised after the (Peshawar) school attack,” a federal minister was quoted as saying by Reuters.
“The military and the government are on the same page on how to tackle militancy. There is no more ‘good’ or ‘bad’ Taliban.
“Kerry specifically pressed for action against the Haqqanis, including banning the group,” the minister added.
A formal announcement of the ban would be made within weeks, the minister told the foreign news agency on condition of anonymity.
The United States has in the past accused the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency, of supporting the Haqqani Network and using it as a proxy in Afghanistan to gain leverage there against the growing influence of its arch-rival India. However, Pakistan denies this allegation.
Following the December 16 terror attack at an army-run school in northwestern Peshawar city that left 150 persons mostly children dead, Nawaz Sharif-led federal government in Islamabad took strict actions including adopting a 20-point action plan to combat terrorism.
Under the plan, military courts are also being established across the country for a period of two years to ensure the speedy trial of terror suspects.
In addition, the prime minister also lifted a six-year moratorium on death penalty for those convicted for terrorism on December 17. Since then, 17 convicted terrorists have been executed in different jails across the country.
