Tensions mounted between Afghanistan and Pakistan over the weekend with Kabul claiming the plot to kill Afghan High Peace Council chairman Burhanuddin Rabbani was hatched east of the Durand Line. Already bristling under American accusations, Islamabad was quick to retort with Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani asking Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai to refrain from indulging in a “blame game'' and doubting Pakistan's commitment to peace in the region.
Though the two countries have been at odds with each other since the beginning of summer over cross-border incursions, Islamabad and Kabul had maintained the semblance of bonhomie through frequent contacts that sought to bury past differences and build a new “brotherly'' bond. That however has come under great strain since Rabbani's assassination with reports from Kabul suggesting that Afghanistan is reconsidering its relationship with Islamabad in the wake of the recent spate of attacks.
And, on Sunday, Pajhwok news agency said Afghanistan had put forces on high alert in eastern Kunar province — which borders the Bajaur tribal agency — to thwart the possible creation of security checkpoints by Pakistani forces along the border.
Earlier, on Saturday, Afghanistan's intelligence agency said it had handed over to Pakistan evidence that the Taliban leadership had plotted Rabbani's assassination on Pakistani soil and the ISI had a role in the killing. “Without any doubt, ISI was involved,'' Afghanistan's Interior Minister Bismillah Mohammadi was reported as telling Parliament.
This invoked a sharp response from Mr. Gilani who said blaming Pakistan was not the solution for Afghanistan's problems, a message aimed at not just Kabul but also Washington as the chorus of allegations regarding Islamabad's “institutional links to terrorists'' gathered momentum since Friday with even NATO weighing in.
About the specific allegation levelled by Mr. Mohammadi, Pakistan's Foreign Office said the “so-called evidence given to the Pakistan Embassy in Kabul was actually a confessional statement of an Afghan national Hamidullah Akundzadeh accused of master-minding the assassination''.
Rejecting the charge of ISI's involvement, the Foreign Office said Mr. Mohammadi had not highlighted some key facts in his statement: The assassin and his handler were roaming around in Kandahar and Kabul for quite some time and the assassin had been in the HPC guest house managed by Afghans close to Rabbani for four days.
These facts were part of the confession handed over to the Embassy by the Afghan intelligence.
The Foreign Office said the Minister's statement was all the more regrettable as Mr. Gilani had himself offered cooperation in the investigation during his visit to Kabul. Those in positions of authority in Kabul should seriously deliberate as to why all those Afghans who are favourably disposed towards peace and towards Pakistan are systematically being removed from the scene and killed.''
