Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Monday directly accused Pakistan's intelligence agency of being behind a recent wave of deadly attacks in Afghanistan, including the Indian embassy bombing. In a strongly worded statement, Karzai said it was "clear" who was behind the violence, including a suicide bombing in Uruzgan Sunday that killed 24 Afghans and the embassy blast that killed more than more than 40 people. "The murder, killing, destruction, dishonouring and insecurity in Afghanistan is carried out by the intelligence administration of Pakistan, its military intelligence institutions," he said in a statement. "We know who kills innocent people," the statement said. "We have told the government of Pakistan and the world and from now on it will be pronounced by every member of the Afghan nation."
Afghanistan regularly accuses Pakistan, a long-time rival of India, of supporting militants who have been waging a deadly insurgency in the nation since the 2001 ouster of the Taliban regime in a US-led invasion. US officials also say that Pakistan has allowed Taliban and Al-Qaeda to regroup in its tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan.
Pakistan rejects charges of supporting extremists and says it is doing what it can to stop them.
Like how? Making deals with them?
The July 7 attack on the Indian embassy was the deadliest in the capital and Afghan officials were quick to point a finger at Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI). India's national security adviser has also blamed the attack, which killed two senior Indian diplomats, on the ISI. "We have no doubt that the ISI is behind this. The ISI is playing evil. The ISI needs to be destroyed," M.K Narayanan told the NDTV news network on Saturday. Pakistan has insisted it was not involved.
In his statement, Karzai also referred to the Taliban's killing on Sunday in Ghazni province of two women whom the militants alleged were prostitutes and worked for the police. "These ladies were martyred by terrorists who have been trained in terrorist nests and intelligence offices outside Afghanistan where respect of (women's) honour doesn't mean anything," his statement said. And he said the beheading of two Afghan refugees by Pakistan-based Taliban militants in June would be "avenged." The men were accused of being spies.
Kabul and Islamabad are key players in the United States' "war on terror" launched after the September 11, 2001 attacks blamed on Al-Qaeda, which the Taliban regime allowed to operate in Afghanistan.
But Afghan and Western officials allege that Islamic extremists have sanctuaries in Pakistan which helped to create the Taliban as an armed militia and was one of only three countries that recognised the hardliners' government. Islamabad officially dropped its support for the Taliban only after the 9/11 attacks but Afghans allege it still wants the new government in Kabul to fail for its own strategic purposes.
Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta told the UN Security Council last week that a key factor behind the worsening security in his country was "the de facto truce" in neighbouring Pakistan's tribal areas. He was referring to ongoing peace talks between Pakistani authorities and top Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud, blamed by the previous government and US officials for the December assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto.