Haqqani Network and al Qaeda discussed forming new unit: US

NEW DELHI: Pakistan-based Haqqani Network, blamed for a terror attack on Sikhs in Kabul in March last year, has discussed the formation of a new joint unit with al Qaeda, according to the US treasury department.

In an assessment of its work to counter terror financing and money laundering, the department also provided information of close links maintained by the Afghan Taliban with al Qaeda, even after the signing of the peace agreement with the US last February.

The Haqqani Network, once described by former chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff Mike Mullen as a “veritable arm” of Pakistan’s Inter-services Intelligence (ISI), was blamed along with Lashkar-etaiba for last year’s attack on a Sikh place of worship in Kabul that killed nearly 30 people.

“Senior Haqqani Network figures have discussed forming a new joint unit of armed fighters in cooperation with and funded by al Qaeda,” the treasury department informed the Pentagon in a document dated January 4. It didn’t give details.

The Haqqani Network has often been accused of targeting Indian interests in Afghanistan. Some reports have suggested the attack on Sikhs in March last year was carried out after the terrorists were unable to target the Indian embassy in Kabul. The document described the Haqqani Network as an “organisation primarily based in North Waziristan, Pakistan” that conducts “cross-border operations into eastern Afghanistan and Kabul”.

Last May, Afghan security forces arrested eight members of a network grouping the Haqqani Network and the Islamic State in Kabul for the attack on Sikhs. The Afghan spy agency, National Directorate of Security, had said at that time the group was also responsible for attacking a gathering of the Shia Hazara minority.