LAHORE: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has met Sirajuddin Haqqani, leader of the Haqqani terror network, in face-to-face talks, Al Jazeera TV channel reported on Sunday. Haqqani, whose network is believed to be based in Pakistan, is reported to have been accompanied to the meeting earlier in the week by the Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Kayani and the head of its intelligence services General Shuja Pasha, Al Jazeera quoted its sources.
| Proper escort for a made man ... |
Karzai's office, however, denied that any such meeting took place. ISPR spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas said he had “no knowledge of such a meeting'.
Reporting from Kabul, Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr said reports about Karzai's meeting had fuelled speculation in the Afghan capital that Islamabad was trying to strike a deal in Afghanistan that would safeguard its interests there. “With the US planning to start withdrawing troops by July 2011, Karzai may be cozying up to Islamabad,' she said. |