Analysis: Reported ban of Haqqani Network unlikely to end Pakistan's support of group

[Valin]

Long War Journal:

Bill Roggio

January 16, 2015

 

Anonymous Pakistani officials have told news agencies that the government will ban the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani Network "within weeks." But a listing of the Haqqani Network as a terrorist entity is unlikely to change decades of support that the jihadist group has received from the Pakistani military and intelligence establishment.

 

Pakistani officials first told The Express Tribune that the Haqqani Network Jamaat-ud-Dawa (the political front of the Lashkar-e-Taiba) and 10 other jihadist groups would be banned in "coming days."

 

"It's our first step towards execution of the National Action Plan," against terrorism, a senior intelligence official told the news agency. "The nation will see more positive steps towards dismantling militant groups. Both civilian and military leadership decided to ban the Haqqani Network and Jamaat-ud-Dawa."

 

Pakistani government officials told Reuters that the ban on the Haqqani Network would be announced "within weeks." A member of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's cabinet said the decision to proscribe the Haqqani Network was made after the Movement of the Taliban assaulted a school in Peshawar and brutally executed 134 children.

(Snip)