Taliban leaders in Pakistan directing Afghan violence
KABUL (AFP) - The Afghan foreign minister said that the leaders of the Taliban and "other international terrorist groups" are directing attacks inside
Afghanistan from bases in neighbouring Pakistan.
Rangeen Dadfar Spanta's comments follow similar statements last week by President Hamid Karzai and come amid some of the heaviest Taliban-linked fighting in Afghanistan in years.
Islamabad has rejected such claims.
"We know that the ideological leadership and also the political leadership (and) military leadership of the Taliban and other international terrorist groups ... are living in Pakistan," Spanta told reporters in Kabul.
Asked if he thought the insurgent attacks which have surged in Afghanistan in recent weeks were being coordinated from Pakistan, Spanta said: "Exactly."
The "strategical background of the terrorism" is behind the Durand Line, the minister said, referring to the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan that was imposed by Britain in 1893.
"The movement and also the communication during some terrorist attacks are also from the other side of the Durand line," Spanta said.
Afghanistan was "very unhappy with this" and wanted serious commitment from Pakistan to deal with the issue, the foreign minister said.
Afghan officials have made similar comments before, angering Pakistan's leaders who point out they have 80,000 troops on the border to hunt down militants.
Karzai said Friday that religious hardliners in Pakistan were sending their students over the border to fight "holy war" in Afghanistan, where vast swathes of tribal territory are outside government control.
"We know very well that in Pakistani madrassas, boys are being told to go to Afghanistan for jihad. They're being told to go and burn schools and clinics," he told a gathering of provincial leaders.
Chief of staff for British forces in southern Afghanistan, Colonel Chris Vernon, has also said the Taliban was coordinating their campaign of violence in Afghanistan from the Pakistani city of Quetta.
He was quoted by Britain's Guardian newspaper on Friday as saying: "The thinking piece of the Taliban is out of Quetta in Pakistan. It's the major headquarters. They use it to run a series of networks in Afghanistan."
The accusations sent relations between the allies in the United States' "war on terror" to a low this year when a tit-for-tat dispute was played out in the media over Afghan intelligence about militants that Pakistan rejected as outdated "nonsense".
Afghan officials believe the Taliban leadership has escaped into Pakistan, which supported the hardline regime but helped US to force them out of power in late 2001 when they did not surrender Al-Qaeda chief
Osama bin Laden.
Their campaign in Afghanistan has seen several fierce clashes in recent days which have killed around 250 people, most of them rebels.
Afghanistan from bases in neighbouring Pakistan.
Rangeen Dadfar Spanta's comments follow similar statements last week by President Hamid Karzai and come amid some of the heaviest Taliban-linked fighting in Afghanistan in years.
Islamabad has rejected such claims.
"We know that the ideological leadership and also the political leadership (and) military leadership of the Taliban and other international terrorist groups ... are living in Pakistan," Spanta told reporters in Kabul.
Asked if he thought the insurgent attacks which have surged in Afghanistan in recent weeks were being coordinated from Pakistan, Spanta said: "Exactly."
The "strategical background of the terrorism" is behind the Durand Line, the minister said, referring to the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan that was imposed by Britain in 1893.
"The movement and also the communication during some terrorist attacks are also from the other side of the Durand line," Spanta said.
Afghanistan was "very unhappy with this" and wanted serious commitment from Pakistan to deal with the issue, the foreign minister said.
Afghan officials have made similar comments before, angering Pakistan's leaders who point out they have 80,000 troops on the border to hunt down militants.
Karzai said Friday that religious hardliners in Pakistan were sending their students over the border to fight "holy war" in Afghanistan, where vast swathes of tribal territory are outside government control.
"We know very well that in Pakistani madrassas, boys are being told to go to Afghanistan for jihad. They're being told to go and burn schools and clinics," he told a gathering of provincial leaders.
Chief of staff for British forces in southern Afghanistan, Colonel Chris Vernon, has also said the Taliban was coordinating their campaign of violence in Afghanistan from the Pakistani city of Quetta.
He was quoted by Britain's Guardian newspaper on Friday as saying: "The thinking piece of the Taliban is out of Quetta in Pakistan. It's the major headquarters. They use it to run a series of networks in Afghanistan."
The accusations sent relations between the allies in the United States' "war on terror" to a low this year when a tit-for-tat dispute was played out in the media over Afghan intelligence about militants that Pakistan rejected as outdated "nonsense".
Afghan officials believe the Taliban leadership has escaped into Pakistan, which supported the hardline regime but helped US to force them out of power in late 2001 when they did not surrender Al-Qaeda chief
Osama bin Laden.
Their campaign in Afghanistan has seen several fierce clashes in recent days which have killed around 250 people, most of them rebels.
posted by Marko at 5/22/2006 10:01:00 AM
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