KABUL, Dec 16: The Taliban on Saturday rejected accusations made by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that Pakistan was supporting them in their insurgency in Afghanistan.
After dropping hints for months about Islamabad’s role in the violence that has claimed thousands of lives this year, Mr Karzai directly accused its eastern neighbour on two separate occasions in the past week. But the Taliban denied the allegations, saying Pakistan was also their enemy as it was a key US ally.
“I strongly dismiss Karzai's claims that Taliban are being supported by Pakistan,” Taliban spokesman Mohammad Hanif told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location. “Pakistan itself is our enemy, because it is America's friend and helped topple Taliban government.”
Mr Hanif said the Taliban movement was “purely a national resistance” and the Afghan nation was behind it. He vowed that the Taliban would continue their struggle until “the invading forces are ousted and Karzai’s puppet regime is toppled”.
Mr Karzai accused the Pakistan government on Wednesday of trying to turn his countrymen into “slaves”, in his strongest words yet, blaming Islamabad for its part in a wave of violence. He added that he was the only person able to prevent Afghans, angered by the insurgency, from “coming after” President Pervez Musharraf.
Pakistan hit back by saying the roots of the problem were in Afghanistan and that Islamabad was doing all it could to counter militancy but stopped short of an outright rebuttal. Pakistan fostered the Taliban movement during the 1990s, fuelling suspicions among Afghan officials, who have made strong comments in the past two years.—AFP
