Pakistan leader derides Afghan security complaint

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf
stepped up a war of words with Afghanistan, deriding
accusations the Taliban leader was in Pakistan as nonsense and
questioning the Afghan government’s leadership.

Musharraf in an interview with CNN late on Sunday, said
relations with neighboring Afghanistan were growing tense and
President Hamid Karzai was “totally oblivious” to efforts by
elements in his government to malign Pakistan.

U.S. President George W. Bush visited both major allies in
the war in terrorism last week and U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice said the United States was trying to promote
cooperation between the often uneasy neighbors.

“President Karzai is totally oblivious of what is happening
in his own country,” Musharraf told CNN.

Afghanistan is facing an increasingly vicious insurgency by
the Taliban, who have been fighting since they were ousted
shortly after the September 11 attacks when Pakistan dropped
support for the radical Islamists.

Although Pakistan officially ended its support, many
Afghans are convinced the Taliban could not survive and fight
without the benefit of Pakistani refuges from where they plot
and launch attacks into Afghanistan.

Pakistan has long rejected such accusations.

Karzai visited Pakistan last month and handed over what
Afghan officials said was detailed information about Taliban
members and activities in Pakistan, including telephone numbers
and the location of supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.

But Musharraf said much of the information was old and
useless.

“Two-thirds of it is months old, and it is outdated, and
there is nothing,” he said.

“The location that they are talking of Mullah Omar is
nonsense. There’s nobody there. We’ve gone there exactly and
seen that there are families living there and there’s no sign
of Mullah Omar,” he said.

CONSPIRACY?

Musharraf said he believed there was a conspiracy against
his country within Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry and
intelligence agencies, which are dominated by members of the
old Northern Alliance.

The alliance, which helped U.S. forces oust the Taliban, is
made up of ethnic Tajik factions traditionally close to
Pakistan’s old rival, India. “I am totally disappointed with
their intelligence, and I feel there is a very, very deliberate
attempt to malign Pakistan,” Musharraf said.

“He should pull up his intelligence, he should pull up his
ministry of defense, he should coordinate with our
intelligence,” Musharraf said, referring to Karzai.

“Let me tell you that I passed on a lot of information to
him … what is the conspiracy going on against Pakistan in his
ministry of defense and his intelligence setup.

“He better set that in order before accusing Pakistan.”

Afghanistan’s trade, aid and diplomatic relations with
India are blossoming, much to the suspicion of Pakistan which
recently accused India and Afghan drug lords of meddling in an
insurgency in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province.

Asked about tension between Islamabad and Kabul, Musharraf
replied: “Well, unfortunately, it is developing in the last one
or two months.”