The killing of a key Haqqani network commander in a recent US forces’ airstrike in Afghanistan, has endorsed Pakistani authorities’ claim that Sirajuddin Haqqani network had shifted to Afghanistan long time ago.

In these airstrikes conducted recently by United States’ forces in central Logar, about 30 people including civilians and Taliban militants were killed while another 19 were killed in a predawn air strike by Nato forces in Bakhtabad area of Herat province.

One of these airstrikes was carried out during an operation codenamed “Khanjar” in Baraki district and Pul-i-Alam. United States has claimed that the Taliban were using civilians as human shields in the targeted areas.

The name of the key Haqqani network commander, reportedly killed during the operation in Logar, was Mullah Qand. The identity of the killed commander, Mullah Qand, has been confirmed and it is very much in the knowledge of US authorities that had long been pressing upon Pakistan to take action against Haqqani network “functioning inside Pakistan” (sic) while the latter had been clarifying repeatedly with authenticity that no such network was anymore operative inside Pakistan.

Pakistani forces had rather cleared all the areas of terrorists and destroyed their hideouts and ammunition factories. Even the most difficult terrain of Shawal and Rajgal were cleared by Pakistani armed forces with perseverance and painstaking efforts conducted without break.

The trouble spots now existed only inside Afghanistan and combined efforts with mutual trust were needed to eradicate terrorism from that region. Pakistan’s viewpoint and clarification that no terrorist networks were any more functional inside Pakistan were also endorsed by highly-placed American functionaries who have been visiting the trouble spots inside Pakistan’s tribal region, off and on. These highly-placed figures from the US included some senior officials as well as senators Sheldon, John McCain, Lindsay Olin Graham and Elizabeth Warren.