This story is from November 23, 2017

US Senate’s pass to LeT may’ve emboldened Pakistan to release Hafiz Saeed

In a significant development earlier this month, the US Congress changed a provision in a defence bill that would have required Islamabad to take steps to “significantly disrupt’’ the activities of both LeT and the Haqqani network.
Ahead of 26/11 anniversary: Pak court orders release of Hafiz Saeed
Hafiz Saeed outside a Lahore court
Key Highlights
  • Hafiz Saeed was ordered released from detention in Lahore by a Pakistan court.
  • The decision to release Saeed came after US Congress delinked LeT from Haqqani network.
WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s release of 26/11 massacre principal Hafiz Saeed , almost on the anniversary of the carnage in Mumbai, follows the United States taking the heat off Islamabad insofar as action against the Lashkar-e-Taiba was concerned.
In a significant development earlier this month, the US Congress changed a provision in a defence bill that would have required Islamabad to take steps to “significantly disrupt’’ the activities of both LeT and the Haqqani network.
It restricted the requirement only to the Haqqani group.
National Defence Authorisation Act 2018, which would have required the US Secretary of Defence to certify that Pakistan is acting against both Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Haqqani network, was changed at the conference to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the bill, and LeT was removed.
Delinking LeT from the Haqqani group gave Pakistan the wiggle room to meet the more urgent American demand of throwing the Haqqani group under the bus while protecting its more immediate and lucrative “Kashmir masla” (issue). Kashmir issue constitutes the Pakistani military’s bread and butter and allows it to put its hand in the national treasury and budget at will.
"The new version has confined this requirement to the Haqqani network only, indicating a desire in Washington to focus entirely on Afghanistan as long as it takes to subdue the Taliban insurgency there,’’ the Dawn newspaper said after the relatively unnoticed change in the NDAA 2018, which has had huge consequences in the sub-continent, including possibly emboldening Pakistan to release Saeed.
"While the United States considers LeT a terrorist organisation, it also realises that the group’s main focus is Kashmir, not Afghanistan. Linking LeT to the Haqqani network, however, creates an impression that the US not only wants Pakistan to help it win the war against the Taliban but also wants it to change Islamabad’s position on Kashmir,’’ Dawn said at that time.
As with all previous US administration, this one too has shown that when it comes to a toss-up between its objectives in Afghanistan (where it has a military presence) and India’s interests in Kashmir, its objectives will win.
Although Washington has spoken frequently against Pakistan’s actions spreading terrorism throughout the region and its intention not to differentiate between good terrorists and bad terrorists, it has shown its priority is Afghanistan. Pakistan (and its military) too has shown that when it comes to a choice, it would rather throw the Haqqani group and its Afghan proxies under the bus rather than sacrifice its equities in Kashmir. In fact, the Pakistan military has been persuading the civilian government to mainstream some of the Kashmirlinked militant groups by allowing them to contest elections.
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