UPDATED ON:
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
16:00 Mecca time, 13:00 GMT
 
News CENTRAL/S. ASIA
Kabul: Islamabad 'soft on terror'

Saleh accused Pakistan's military of being 
unwilling to tackle al-Qaeda and the Taliban

The head of Afghanistan's spy agency has accused Pakistan of refusing to arrest the suspected mastermind of the deadly bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul.

In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera, aired on Tuesday, Amrullah Saleh said that his agency gave the man's details and location to Pakistani officials but they refused to act.

"One of the masterminds of the Indian embassy bombing in Kabul - he lives in an area in Pakistan," he told Al Jazeera.

"They [the Paksitani authorities] know who he is ... we have sent that information through [the] relevant channels and they know who he is."

Saleh, however, refused to identify the man in question.

Pakistan has rejected claims that it is not doing enough to combat al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

Regional rivals

Kabul and Islamabad have regularly blamed each other for not doing enough to combat al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters, many of whom are known to be based in Pakistan's autonomous tribal areas.

US and Indian officials have also accused Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), of complicity in the Indian embassy bombing in July, which killed at least 40 people and left over 140 others wounded.

Saleh told Al Jazeera that the Pakistani military appeared unwilling to target known al-Qaeda and Taliban targets in Pakistan.

"I'm not seeing any Pakistan military activity in Miram Shah - that's where terrorist groups are headquartered," he told Al Jazeera, referring to an area in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region.

"The entire Afghan government is hoping that the civilian administration in Pakistan will be able to bring the security forces under its control," he said.

Asked if Osama bin Laden could be captured if action was taken on information provided by Afghan intelligence, Saleh said: "If we manage to bring Pakistan's military in a full committed manner [into] this war - yes."

Pakistani rejection

But Rashid Qureshi, a former spokesman for Musharaff, rejected Saleh's claims.

"I find it ridiculous and I'm quite surprised and taken aback," he told Al Jazeera.

Qureshi said he could not comment specifically on whether information had been passed to the government, but that "having known how the government responds to any threat or allegation of an extremist or a terrorist in Pakistani society, I would tend not to believe what he [Saleh] has said".

"I know in the past what the government's been doing and I'm sure the present government and the present armed forces are doing exactly the same. In the tribal areas ... the Pakistan forces are there and I'm shocked that he's not aware of that," said Qureshi.

"They have carried out operations - there are Pakistani tanks, there are aircraft, there are helicopter gunships, combating, fighting and removing the extremist elements from the face of the earth.

"Now how can an intelligence chief - if he is an intelligence chief - make allegations against what the whole world is conscious of: that, yes, Pakistan armed forces and the Pakistan government have taken a strong stand against the extremists and the terrorists and that Pakistan as a country, as a people and as an armed forces have suffered more than the Americans [and] more than the Nato forces."

Military reshuffle

Islamabad  meanwhile has announced 14 new military appointments, including that of a new ISI chief.

At least 40 people were killed in the July bombing of the Indian embassy [Reuters]
Lieutenant General Ahmed Shujaa Pasha, formerly head of military operations, was appointed director general of the ISI, according to a statement from the Pakistani military.

He replaced Lieutenant General Nadeem Taj, a key lieutenant of Pervez Musharraf, the former president.

Pasha is widely considered to be a close aide to Ashfaq Kayani, Pakistan's military chief, who ran the ISI until October last year.

The army insisted the new appointments were routine.

"These were the changes due over a period of time. This is how the system works in the army," Major-General Athar Abbas, Pakistan's chief military spokesman, said.

"The change comes at a time when there was a lot of talk about ISI in the Western media," Talat Masood, a security analyst and former Pakistan army general, said.

"With the new ISI chief, General Kayani has completed a team of his choice. He will be able to now lead the army with greater confidence."

Though Islamabad has helped in capturing or killing hundreds of senior al-Qaeda fighters since Musharraf allied with the US in 2001, the ISI often faces accusations of covertly supporting "terror groups".

Many believe the spy agency has been inflitrated by al-Qaeda and Taliban sympathisers.

In August, David McKiernan, the Nato commander in Afghanistan, was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying there "certainly is a level of ISI complicity" in Taliban militancy along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

 Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
Feedback Number of comments : 12
 
Shawkat Ali
Pakistan
30/09/2008
He wants to kill more innocent people
The Afghan Spy chief knows very well that they carried out that bombing at Indian Embassy in order to drag ISI into conflict and defame it. they should desist such kind of things for a host who sacrificed alot for Afghanise Mulsims and still doing for them, but these people who are now in power were left Afghan people at the mercy of war-lords, looters and now they claim to represent Afghan people, they first set their own house in order then to blame others.

Jawed
Afghanistan
30/09/2008
Capable Spy Service
Well, the pakistani authorities have arrested Taliban leader as per intelligence of Afghanistan's NDS (National Directorate of Security), whenever they felt they didnt need those leaders anymore. I am sure this information is accurately correct but the pakistani government is being hypocritical in terms of acting on the basis of that information

Wahid
Afghanistan
30/09/2008
Pakistans involvement
Mr. Qureshi : Pls start watching some Afghan news channels see the number of pakistani citizen coming to do sucides. U will know then how much pakistanis are intellent.

Jack
Ireland
30/09/2008
Money
Why should pakistan stop them. They make money both from Americans, Arabs and AQ. and they are making thier own army stronger which is good for them. If Pakistan stop the war, neither America nor AQ will pay them. as long as there is war in AFG. pakistan will benifit thats why the will keep producing extremists in their relgious schools.

Jalaluddin Qureshi
Singapore
30/09/2008
Credibility of the Afghan spy agency
Question on the credibility of the claims made. First, is there anything like an Afghan spy agency? If there is such an agency, then does it have the required capabilities to overtake the abilities of the far more smart and highly experienced Pakistani ISI? The answer is no, it doesnt. Its all cooked-up allegations.

chris
Sweden
30/09/2008
Logic
Jalaluddin Qureshi Singapore Who's the better spy? The one you know of or the ones you don't know?

Shauky Baloch
Pakistan
30/09/2008
Enough Is Enough
Since Pakistan became a nuclear powered state, certain countries disliked it and hatched many conspiracies to destabilize it and in order to declare it as a failed state, they aggravated the law and order situation to extent the people started leaving Pakistan. Pakistan paid very heavy prize for war on terror, they pouring millions of dollars into the pockets of leaders, but the main sufferers are the people of Pakistan, its time to say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, we should change our foreign policies.

Salahuddin Ansari
United Kingdom
30/09/2008
ISI is a terrorist organization
In respond to Mr Qureshi. Its not only the Afghan spy agency who accuses ISI with failling to react properly against terrorists in Pakistan. CIA and Indian spy agency also accused ISI many times with cooperating with terrorists inside and out side Pakistan. Also if ISI is a vary smart and experienced agency then how come terrorist managed to bomb Marriot Hotle in the heart of capital Islamabad.

Javed
Pakistan
01/10/2008
Reply to Mr. Salehs interview on Al Jazeera
In response to Mr. Saleh, the so called Afghan intelligence chief who seems to be completely blind to what is happening on the Pakistani side of the border. The whole world can see the military action taking place, armoured vehicles, tanks, gunship helicopters and even the Pakistan's Airforce F16's have been bombarding the area for the last month, incurring deaths and injuries to their own people, trying to get extermists out. Mr. Saleh we know who you have been trained by, look at the facts!

Mohammed
United Arab Emirates
01/10/2008
Mr. Salehs interview on Al-Jazeera
Afghan security chief talks like a school boy, I want to ask him, what actions they have taken, and what results have the Afghan government achieved against the extremists? Even the hi-tech foreign troops, which you permitted to operate from a Holy Muslim land have not been able to do what Pakistan has done for your country. Think like an Afghan Muslim, and not as an agent of the indians or enemy of Islam.

surab
Brazil
01/10/2008
I think the head of afghanistan spy agency is right.
I think the U.S and Nato should bomb the Al Qaeda and Taliban targets. They are in Pakistan and the ISI supports them. Pakistan goverment play cat and mouse game with the world. Pakistan should be stop as soon as possibel.

Kayani
Pakistan
12/10/2008
Puppets of usa- what do u expect?
Pakistan is only muslim ummah nuclear power and is paying price for that.Usa wants to attack pakistan so they better make some excuses before they attack another muslim country.Afghan government are slaves of usa, in other words should we care what israel/america says?american canditates recently called pakistan and iran the "the most dangerous nation" on earth.this is all west hate against islam and muslims.we pakistanis will defend our land and afghanis are slaves of usa now.

 
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