[Pakistani officials, in turn, announced that they will send a high-level delegation to Kabul this weekend to discuss improving bilateral communications on terrorism and regional security. In Islamabad, Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif visited the Afghan Embassy and said both countries need to make “joint efforts against terrorism instead of playing a blame game.” He added, “The enemy is taking advantage of our differences.”]
By Pamela Constable
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Mohammed Masoom
Stanekzai, Afghanistan's intelligence chief, right, and
Wais Ahmad Barmak, the
Afghan interior minister, at a news conference
Thursday. There, they
said they had given neighboring Pakistan
confessions and other
proof that the militants who carried out
a recent series of
attacks were trained in Pakistan and
allowed to move freely
there. (Rahmat Gul/AP)
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KABUL
— Afghan security officials,
facing public wrath after a spate of urban terrorist attacks that left more
than 130 people dead and hundreds injured, announced Thursday that they had
presented Pakistani authorities with “undeniable evidence” that some of the
insurgents were trained in Pakistan and that the attacks were planned there.
The interior minister and intelligence chief
spoke at a hastily arranged news conference after returning from a brief visit
to Islamabad, where they said they gave senior officials the names and
locations of supporters of and facilities used by attackers, including mosques
and seminaries.
They said some of the information had come
from would-be suicide bombers who were captured in the course of bloody bombing
and shooting attacks in Afghanistan that targeted a luxury hotel, a military
academy, a British charity and a busy block near a hospital, where an ambulance
filled with explosives was detonated.
As the officials spoke, several hundred
protesters rallied at a nearby park and outside the Pakistani Embassy,
demanding that the Kabul government do more to protect its citizens and that
Pakistan stop fostering insurgents. But the capital remained tense and largely
deserted, with heavily armed police and armored vehicles stationed on many
streets.
“The people are angry, and we are, too,” said
Interior Minister Wais Ahmad Barmak, adding that several attacks had
deliberately targeted civilians. “We submitted all the evidence we had. We had
a very clear discussion.” The officials described the meeting as “constructive”
and said Pakistan seemed more cooperative than in the past. “Things are
different now,” he said.
Pakistani officials, in turn, announced that
they will send a high-level delegation to Kabul this weekend to discuss
improving bilateral communications on terrorism and regional security. In
Islamabad, Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif visited the Afghan Embassy and said
both countries need to make “joint efforts against terrorism instead of playing
a blame game.” He added, “The enemy is taking advantage of our differences.”
Pakistan is facing unprecedented pressure
from Washington to crack down on cross-
border insurgency, and the new accusations by
Afghan officials are likely to intensify that pressure. The Trump
administration recently suspended all military aid to its longtime security
ally, saying Pakistan had failed to take sufficient steps to rein in Taliban
insurgents, especially the Haqqani network.
[Despite Trump’s punitive military aid cut,
Pakistan and U.S. are still intertwined]
Officials in Islamabad said they were
examining the evidence, but they did not comment on the Afghan charges or
demands that they take concrete action against training and support centers for
the Haqqanis and other insurgents. Mohammed Masoom Stanekzai, the Afghan
intelligence chief, said he and Barmak had asked Pakistan to “hand over” the
perpetrators of the recent attacks and shut down Taliban training centers.
Some Afghan analysts said they doubt the new
pressure being brought to bear on Pakistan will make a difference. They
suggested that its military leaders still believe they can use anti-Afghan
insurgents as a foil against Pakistan’s neighbor India, which they see as a far
greater threat than Islamist extremism. But others suggested that the recent
violence and crackdown by Washington may have created a psychic turning point
in the stubborn regional dynamic.
[‘No more!’ Trump tweets to Pakistan,
accusing it of ‘lies & deceit’]
“If the Afghan authorities had lost faith in
us and we in them, there would not be this engagement,” said one Pakistani
Foreign Ministry official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Pakistan
will not allow anyone to use its soil against Afghanistan, and the same should
go for Afghanistan. There has to be reciprocity. Terrorism is a common enemy,
and it needs to be fought together.”
For the Afghan government, blaming Pakistan
once again may not be enough to dispel the growing perception here that the
situation is spiraling out of control — that the insurgents are running
roughshod over the Western-backed security forces, and the authorities,
distracted and weakened by political fights, are not capable of governing.
“Even though we have had very serious attacks
in the past, somehow these attacks seem like a game changer as far as the
psychology of the people and the government are concerned,” said Anwar Ahady, a
former cabinet minister and opposition party leader. “The government says the
Taliban have crossed a red line. This has created an environment of instability
and unpredictability as to what will happen in the near future.”
In Shahr-e-Naw Park, where a small group of
protesters gathered Thursday under police protection, the anguish in their
voices spoke more loudly than their numbers.
“We are dying every day,” said Shuja Shahani,
23, a university student. “I cannot carry a knife in the city. How can a person
detonate a vehicle bomb?” The demonstrators blamed senior officials for the
violence and demanded that they resign.
Maryam Ahmadi, 42, a former Kabul provincial
council member, decried the deaths of scores of civilians in the ambulance
bombing as she took the microphone on a makeshift podium. “Yesterday it was our
countrymen’s turn. Tomorrow it will be us,” she exclaimed.
Sayed Salahuddin and Sharif Hassan in Kabul
and Shaiq Hussain in Islamabad contributed to this report.
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