Kerry praises Pakistan’s crackdown on militants

Islamabad's vow to target all groups augurs well for resolving militancy in Afghanistan as well, US officials say.

The US secretary of state John Kerry addresses a press conference in Islamabad on January 13, 2015. T Mughal / EPA

KARACHI // The United States on Tuesday praised Pakistan’s offensive against militants in its tribal areas while urging its troubled ally to also take on extremist groups that target Afghanistan and India.

Islamabad has been accused of selectively targeting groups that attack Pakistan, and ignoring or even supporting those that fight US and local forces in Afghanistan and Indian forces in Kashmir.

“We are very pleased that at this moment, the government has refocused its energy, [and] initiated a major initiative” against the Pakistani Taliban and other groups in the North Waziristan tribal area, the US secretary of state John Kerry said in Islamabad.

He added that US “military and intelligence personnel are talking very seriously about the road ahead to help deal with it as effectively as possible”.

Mr Kerry’s visit comes as US-Pakistan relations have improved significantly – and military and counter-terrorism cooperation increased.

The threat of civil war in Afghanistan after the departure of Nato forces last month has pushed Islamabad and the new government in Kabul to work together towards some form of reconciliation with the Afghan Taliban.

Mr Kerry’s talks in Islamabad also coincide with an escalation in skirmishes between Indian and Pakistani troops along the de facto border in Kashmir that have raised tensions between the arch rivals. Mr Kerry also likely used the visit to reassure Pakistan that Washington’s efforts to bolster ties with India – a more important long-term ally – will not come at Islamabad’s expense.

A number of other factors have contributed to the improved US- Pakistan relationship.

The military launched its largest ever operation against the Pakistani Taliban in June, after an attack on Karachi’s international airport. The offensive has also targeted the infrastructure of the Haqqani Network, the most formidable Afghan insurgent faction that US officials have asked Pakistan to tackle for years.

The Pakistani Taliban’s massacre of 132 schoolchildren in Peshawar last month ago also appears to have been a watershed moment.

The public outrage that bolstered the military’s operation could dissipate, as it has after past terrorist attacks, but Pakistani leaders at least found the political space to pledge to take on all extremist groups based in the country, perhaps the first tacit public admission that Pakistan has used some groups to further its foreign policy goals.

“The fact that we are in this kind of alignment of interests and have this window of opportunity to have discussions like these … is not insignificant,” a senior state department official said. “Saying publicly and privately that they were not making any sort of distinction between terrorist groups is something that we’ve heard more uniformly, more robustly than we’ve ever heard.”

The state department on Tuesday designated the Afghanistan-based Pakistan Taliban leader, Mullah Fazlullah, a “specially designated global terrorist”, raising the threat of sanctions against any party dealing with him.

The US official added that Pakistan’s offensive appeared to have targeted the Haqqani Network – which it has been accused of using as a proxy in Afghanistan. “We’ll have to see what develops, but I think you can’t deny that the North Waziristan operation has had some significant impacts … there has been a significant disruption” of the Haqqanis.

Analysts, however, doubted Islamabad would go further and launch an all-out operation against the Haqqanis at the same time as the Pakistani Taliban, whether out of fear of overreach or because it is still hedging in its use of proxies.

The question of whether Pakistan will truly end its support for all militant groups, especially those targeting India, is even more unclear.

Aside from the domestic impetus for tackling militant groups, possibly an equally or more important factor have been likely Afghan reassurances that Pakistani interests will be considered in exchange for its cooperation in pushing the Afghan Taliban to the negotiating table. And that the US will not abandon Pakistan after it withdraws.

“Pakistan for the first time is feeling comfortable that there will not be a situation in Afghanistan that is completely antagonistic to it, as it perceived was the case,” said Moeed Yusuf, director of South Asia Programmes at the US Institute of Peace.

“Much more positive cooperation is taking place [between the three countries] – on the issue of the Taliban, on the issue of violence in Afghanistan, on the issue of safe havens in Pakistan and in Afghanistan – behind the scenes than we know,” he added.

Afghanistan is also facing a critical moment as US combat forces exit the country, pushing it to work more closely with Pakistan on securing a peace process.

The new-found cooperation may come at the expense of India’s sway in Afghanistan, where the South Asian rivals have competed for influence.

As long as Pakistan’s role in pushing the Taliban towards talks is necessary, Afghan president Ashraf Ghani is likely to be reluctant to follow his predecessor’s avowedly pro-India stance.

“The contours of the current understanding mean that the new Afghan government is going to hold off on rewarming Indian ties beyond a point and give Pakistan a chance to deliver,” Mr Yusuf said. “I think Pakistan feels it has the upper hand at the moment.”

While both sides claim the other is responsible for the uptick in cross-border violence in Kashmir, under prime minister Narendra Modi, India has taken a relatively more hardline stance on the border issue.

The Modi government urged Mr Kerry during his trip to India this week to push Pakistan to end its support for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the terrorist group responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks. But the increase in border tensions may bolster anti-India militants in Pakistan.

With the departure of US troops and the Taliban possibly entering peace talks in Afghanistan, militant groups may turn their sights on India.

“This is exactly the kind of tension that they would benefit from,” Mr Yusuf said.

“In a number of ways it’s the worst possible time to have any sort of opening available to any militant group in the region.”