We are fighting Americans in Afghanistan,won't act against Haqqani: Pakistan's DPC Chief

Islamabad: Defence of Pakistan Council (DPC) chief Maulana Samiul Haq has clearly admitted that they are the ones fighting the Americans in Afghanistan and the Pakistan Army would not take any action against the Haqqani Network.

"It is not possible that Pakistan will conduct any operation against the Haqqanis," the Dawn quoted Haq, as saying.

"The West has been defaming jihad, equating it with terrorism, but we need to raise a call to jihad, so that our youth is prepared all the time," he said.

"We are fighting the Americans in Afghanistan and those who cannot fight are waging jihad with their words and pens; the whole nation needs to rise up to defeat the West."

Haq slammed US President Donald Trump`s recent remarks about Pakistan of providing safe havens to terrorist organizations and said that those he was affiliated with "were still fighting the Americans in Afghanistan".

Flanked by the leaders of other DPC component parties, including Jamaat-ud-Dawa, veteran jihadi leader Fazalur Rehman Khalil and PML-Zia MNA Ijazul Haq, the DPC leader said he did not agree with the recent briefing by the ISPR.

Blaming the US for destroying peace in the region and denouncing former President General Pervez Musharraf for siding with the US `for money`, Haq said, "That dictator was a weak man who sided with the US for money and left the whole nation to face terrorism and chaos."

"We do not want any American money; it is not even justified as they have brought unimaginable woes to the Muslims in Afghanistan and Pakistan," Dawn News quoted Haq, as saying.

Maulana Samiul Haq had close ties to Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.

The Defense of Pakistan Council is an umbrella coalition of more than 40 Pakistani Political and Religious parties that advocate conservative policies such as closing NATO supply routes to Afghanistan.

Haq, who is the chief of his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI-S), also issued a call for `jihad` to every section of society.

Elaborating about terrorist attacks being carried out in Pakistan by local actors affiliated with religious groups, Haq claimed that no Pakistani was involved in killing innocent people.

At his press conference, the DPC leader reportedly took aim at the recent US policy statement on Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

He alleged that the US was defaming Pakistan for the ills of the Afghan government which, he said, had connived with the CIA and Indian intelligence, killing civilians and security personnel in Pakistan.

Haq and other speakers also blamed the Pakistan government for pursuing a "failed foreign policy`" and demanded that parliament register their protest on the matter.