Updated on
Summary The US has said that it will continue to press Islamabad to squeeze the Haqqani network.
Declaring “there were indications of Haqqani involvement” in the weekend attacks in the Afghan capital, secretary of state Hillary Clinton said that she had pressed Pakistan to “squeeze” the Haqqani network when she visited Islamabad last October.Afghan interior minister Bismillah Mohammadi said that one of the militants arrested during the latest attacks on the Afghan capital and three other cities had told the authorities that al-Qaida linked Haqqani network was behind the assaults.The secretary of state said she had spoken to her Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar to urge her for a commitment to work closely for peace and stability in Afghanistan and also discussed the recent terrorist attacks in Kabul.In Washington, state department spokesperson Mark Toner said, “They (Clinton and Khar) did discuss next steps in the US-Pakistani dialogue in light of this parliamentary review.“We recognise that this has been a long and difficult road for Pakistan. It speaks to the strength of Pakistans democratic institutions that this parliamentary reviews taken place and that the government has come up with recommendations. I think it’s incumbent on us now to engage with them in a discussion about some of those recommendations,” he said.
