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Pakistan leader derides Afghan security complaint

Posted on: Monday, 6 March 2006, 02:00 CST

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"Two-thirds of it is months old, and it is outdated, and there is nothing," he said.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

Source: REUTERS

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