Afghanistan criticizes Pak; policeman killed
KABUL, Afghanistan, July 23, (Agencies): The Afghan intelligence service accused Pakistan on Wednesday of stoking instability in the country by backing militants who stage attacks in Afghanistan.
Spokesman Hasib Sediqi of the National Directorate for Security charged that recent attacks in Afghanistan were planned in Pakistan, allegedly with the support of the Pakistani military’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI.
Pakistan has denied such accusations in the past.
Sediqi offered no evidence for his claims. He alleged that Pakistan’s military campaign against militants in the Waziristan border region had made no progress because the ISI had warned the area’s Haqqani militants ahead of launching the campaign. The Haqqani network is an al-Qaeda affiliated Taleban group active in Afghanistan and based in Pakistan’s North Waziristan region.
Sediqi said the Pakistani military operation had so far not resulted in the arrest or killing of any major insurgent leader and that the only deaths were from US drone strikes in the same area.
The accusations came as a suicide bomber killed one policeman and wounded three in Afghanistan’s northern Kunduz province.
Police spokesman Sarwar Hussaini said the bomber, who was on foot, targeted the Chardara police district chief in Kunduz city.
“Our message to Pakistan is that friendship with Afghanistan will have political and security benefits,” Sediqi added.
Violence has been growing in recent months as US-led foreign forces have been steadily withdrawing ahead of a full pull out of all combat forces at the end of the year. A bilateral security agreement between the United States and Afghanistan, and another to follow with NATO, has been delayed until a new president is elected. Election official are now auditing the results of a second round of voting between former finance minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai and former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.
Meanwhile, several hundred Afghan protesters rallied Wednesday in the heart of Kabul to denounce the fighting in Gaza Strip and the killings of Palestinian civilians caught up in the conflict.
Chanting anti-Israeli and anti-American slogans, the protesters marched through the center of the Afghan capital, carrying banners and photographs of Palestinian children killed during Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.