KABUL: Kabul has said it has handed ‘undeniable’ evidence to Pakistan showing that a recent spate of deadly attacks were planned on Pakistani soil, Afghan officials said on Thursday, amid growing public anger over their impotence to protect civilians.
Kabul is on edge after militants stormed a luxury hotel, bombed a crowded street and raided a military compound in the past two weeks.
Afghan authorities have blamed the January 20 attack on the Intercontinental hotel and Saturday’s ambulance bombing on the Haqqani Network. Both attacks have been claimed by the Taliban. The Haqqani leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is deputy chief of the Taliban.
Afghanistan’s spy agency chief Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai, while talking to reporters on Thursday, alleged it was clear that the attacks were ‘planned from across the border’. “We asked Pakistan to hand over the culprits of the attacks in Afghanistan and we shared undeniable evidence that the attacks were planned there,” Stanekzai said, a day after meeting with top officials in Islamabad.
Afghan Interior Minister Wais Barmak said the Afghans submitted a list of questions during Wednesday’s ‘constructive’ one-hour meeting, asking among other things what action Pakistan would take against Taliban leaders and training centres on their soil.
Published in Daily Times, February 2nd 2018.
