KABUL – Demonstrators protested outside the Pakistani embassy in Kabul onThursday as senior Afghan officials said they had handed over evidenceconnecting insurgents based in Pakistan with a recent spate of attacks thatkilled well over 100 people.
The protests, in which dozens of people burnt flags and chanted, “Death toPakistan”, was not large, but it came during a period of heightened tensionin the link>Afghanlink> capital following two majorattackslink> in the past two weeks.
On Thursday, Interior Minister Wais Barmak and Masooom Stanekzai, head ofthe NDS intelligence service, returned from a visit to Islamabad, wherethey had pressed Pakistani authorities to move against Taliban leadersbased in the country.
“We provided link>Pakistanlink> with documents about Taliban operatingcenters inside link>Pakistanlink> and we expectlink>Pakistanlink> to act against them,” Barmak told anews conference in link>Kabullink> .
However, he declined to provide details on the information provided, citingthe need to keep operational intelligence secret while investigationscontinued.
A Pakistani security delegation is due to visitlink>Kabul link> onSaturday to continue the discussion, which comes as the United States hascut off some aid to link>Pakistanlink>over what it calls its failure to crackdown on militants attacking in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan has long accused link>Pakistanlink>of providing safe haven to Taliban andother insurgents, a charge link>Pakistanlink>denies, pointing to the thousands ofcasualties it has suffered from militant violence over the years.
Last month, the Taliban claimed two major attackslink> in link>Kabul link> , one on the IntercontinentalHotel, which killed more than 30 people and a second that killed more than100 people when an ambulance packed with explosives blew up on a crowdedstreet.
The attacks link> in the heavily protectedcity center fueled fresh worries about the Western-backed government’sability to provide security and combat the Taliban insurgency.
On Thursday, the defense ministry issued a statement that dismissed as“exaggerated” a BBC report that the Taliban were operating in 70 percent ofAfghanistan and said the army was involved in 14 separate operations.
But despite a sharp rise in US air strikes that commanders say have putheavy pressure on the Taliban and driven them back from major provincialcenters, their ability to strike urban targets and undermine confidence inthe government appears unaffected. – Agencies