WASHINGTON - In the so-called war on terrorism, Afghanistan is in a mess, a top American lawmaker says, alleging Pakistan continues to use proxies against its neighbour and give terrorists safe havens.
“I believe Pakistan is playing us, they launched what they called counterterrorism operations in the tribal areas, but it quickly became clear they were only targeting the Pakistani Taliban and not the Afghan Taliban,” Congressman Ted Poe said.
At a Congressional hearing last week, the lawmaker recalled ISIS had announced the establishment of the Afghan affiliate in January 2015 and had been entrenched in the eastern part of the country.
The ISIS presence in Afghanistan had further complicated the country's tourist landscape, with the fighters becoming leaders of the ISIS Khorasan Province, he added.
Poe, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism and Nonproliferation, said: “It is no surprise that Afghanistan is a mess in the war on terror.
“It's crystal clear to me that Pakistan is not on our side. It is time we consider listing Pakistan; one, as a state sponsor of terrorism; two, stop sending them US aid; three, remove and revoke their status as a major non-NATO US ally...”
The Pakistan-based Haqqani Network, he claimed, was directly linked to both Al Qaida and Taliban. He held the network responsible for more American deaths in the region than any other terrorist group.
In 2011, Admiral Mike Mullen, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate: "The Haqqani Network acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan's inter-services intelligence agency."
Pakistan had apparent ties to about every terrorist group in Afghanistan and openly supported the Afghan Taliban before and after the extremists took control of Kabul in 1996, Poe said.
“We know that Taliban is still based in Pakistan and it came as no surprise that when a U.S. drone strike killed the leader of the Taliban in May 2016, he was in south-western Pakistan.
“The laundry list of evidence of Pakistan's support for terrorist goes on and on. We remember that when Al Qaida leader and America's most wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden was killed, he was found in Pakistan,” he said. (Pajhwok)