Indian intelligence officials believe that last week’s terror strike in Kabul, in which a truck bomb went off in one of the most secure areas of Afghanistan’s capital housing diplomatic establishments, shows that the US administration has miserably failed to curb the Haqqani network’s terror fund-raising capacity from Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), despite its consistent efforts since the late 2000s. Eighty people died in the latest strike.
The Afghan intelligence service, National Directorate of Security (NDS), has stated that the investigation into the suicide attacks showed the involvement of the Haqqani network, which was assisted by the Pakistani ISI.
Indian intelligence agency sources said that a team of senior US officials from the Treasury Department had met UAE’s State Security Department (SSD) and Dubai’s General Department of State Security (GDSS) in Abu Dhabi in December 2009 and submitted documented proof that showed that the Haqqani group was receiving significant funds from the Gulf, particularly from donors in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
“The Haqqani network at that time was raising 80% of its funds from people and organisations based in UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Since Afghanistan’s banking system was not robust, Pakistan based banks, with open support of the ISI, were acting as the courier to transfer the terror money from the Gulf to these terror organisations. We know this on record that the US officials had, at the time, shown them (UAE officials) documented evidence that proved how two of Haqqani network’s senior functionary had made multiple visits to these countries to raise funds. However, the intelligence agencies of at least one of these three countries, had at the time shifted the blame of the terror attacks on us, which had left even the US officials shocked. Unless and until the funding of Haqqani network is stopped, by whatever means necessary, such terror strikes won’t abate. Last week’s attack shows that the US administration has failed to apply the required pressure on these countries that continue to act as financier of the terror organisations that are operating from Pakistan and along Pakistan-Afghanistan border. To expect that Afghanistan alone will tackle these multi-headed monsters is too naïve,” a senior official source aware of the development said.
According to sources, Pakistan’s ISI had developed a well running mechanism to pass on funds to the terror organisations. “It is just like one of the many departments that ISI has. A senior director rank official works on how much fund a terror organisation should be given, which is based on the ‘work’ it has been doing. The US needs to dismantle this machinery if it wants to have any impact on terror financing,” the official said.