Both the Taliban group and the notorious Haqqani terrorist network leadership councils are believed to be based in Pakistan.
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Jason Campbell, an associate policy analyst at the RAND Corporation, said that with the various interests and sides involved, it is very hard to know for certain how the US was able to get Mansoor’s location to carry out the deadly drone strike.
The Americans killed his brother “just for driving a vehicle”, Qasim said, stressing, “It was not written on [Mansour’s] forehead that he is a Taliban leader”.
Cleveland said last week that the strike on Mansour may not bring the top-level Taliban leadership to the negotiating table in the near term, but it may sway lower-level leaders to choose “the path of peace”. TTP HEad Mullah Fazalullah moved to Afghanistan and is planning attacks inside Pakistan from Afghanistan.
There is no doubt that the first-ever drone attack in Balochistan crossed the “red line” that Islamabad had conveyed to Washington in 2010.
A Pakistani police officer and paramedics stand beside two dead bodies reportedly killed in a US drone strike in the Ahmad Wal area in Baluchistan province, Pakistan, at a hopsital in Quetta, Pakistan, Sunday, May 22, 2016.
“Muhammad Mansour was an impediment to peace and we welcome President Obama’s decision and his bold action to eliminate a person who was preventing other Taliban elements in the calls from our government for the peace process”.
Although the exact nature of Mansour’s contacts with Iranian establishment is not known, given the nature of Pakistan-Iran diplomatic relations, his frequent visits to that country must have been a source of concern for his Pakistani handlers.
It does reflect that even this nominally “successful” USA drone strike caused a civilian casualty, however, and the relative Pentagon ambivalence about killing bystanders with drone strikes into countries against which the U.S. is not at war. If the past is any guide, it is unlikely to stop the United States from carrying out more such attacks in Pakistan.
Drone attacks have proven extremely controversial with the Pakistani public and rights groups.
The Pak-US relations have their ups and downs but the ties have been gradually deteriorating in recent months. The development of Iran’s Chahbahar Port is also seen as a counter-weight to the construction and development of Pakistan’s China-sponsored Arabian seaport of Gwadar in Balochistan province.
The new Taliban leader’s success and longevity also depends on how he manages his relationship with Pakistan’s intelligence agency, said Rahimini.
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India should be watching these developments closely.
