Pak rejects allegations of role in Kabul bombing

Pakistan’s top civilian and military leadership on Wednesday expressed concern over the “deteriorating” security situation in Afghanistan and rejected as “baseless” allegations that it had any hand in last week’s bombing in the war-torn country’s capital.

The assertion by Pakistan came as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chaired a special meeting of the National Security Committee of the Cabinet to review issues of national and regional security.

The forum strongly condemned the recent incident of terrorism in Kabul and resolved to remain steadfast and resolute in support of the Afghan people, according to a statement by the Prime Minister’s Office.

“The participants expressed concern on the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan and strongly rejected the baseless allegations on Pakistan in that context,” the statement said.

Pakistan had last week also strongly rejected as “baseless” the Afghan allegations that the Taliban-linked militants with the help of Pakistani spy agency ISI carried out the bombing in Kabul that killed at least 150 people.

The Afghan intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), had said early findings showed that the Haqqani network with the assistance of the ISI carried out the attack on Tuesday in Kabul.

The meeting on Wednesday highlighted that Pakistan was the only country in the Afghan equation which has achieved clear and measurable success against terrorism despite limited capacity and huge human and economic costs.