Afghanistan: We have proof attackers trained in Pakistan

KABUL: Afghanistan has given neighbouring Pakistan confessions and other proof showing that the militants who carried out a recent series of attacks were trained in Pakistan and that Taliban leaders there are allowed to roam freely, Afghan officials said.

Interior Minister Wais Ahmed Barmak told a news conference yesterday the evidence was presented at a meeting a day earlier in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

Afghanistan’s spy chief Masoom Stanekzai also attended the meeting, along with senior Pakistani military and intelligence officials.

Stanekzai, addressing the same news conference, said Afghanistan laid out its proof and asked Pakistan to take action to prevent further attacks.

There was no immediate comment from Pakistan, which has expressed condolences over the recent attacks.

A Pakistani delegation is due in Kabul on Saturday, said Stanekzai.

Nearly 200 people have been killed over the past month in attacks claimed by the Taliban and a rival Islamic State affiliate.

Afghan authorities say they detained one of the gunmen who attacked a military academy on Monday, killing 11 people in an assault claimed by the Islamic State.

“The Taliban, with these actions, cannot call themselves a political organisation,” Stanekzai said.

“They are a terrorist organisa- tion. We expect action, not just talk.”

Afghanistan and Pakistan have long accused each other of failing to combat militants operating along their porous border.

The Afghan officials said some of the latest evidence came from confessions by captured militants.

They said they told the Pakistani side that some of the militants had been trained at Islamic seminaries in the Pakistani border town of Chaman.