Pak rejects Afghan army chief's allegations

In its latest round of war of words with Afghanistan, Pakistan today rejected Afghan army chief's assertion that Islamabad controls the Taliban.
"The allegations that Pakistan 'controls' the Taliban and has 'unleashed' them on Afghanistan have no basis. We reject them categorically," foreign office spokesman Aizaz Chaudhry said.
"Such comments also reflect insincerity on the part of some elements in Afghan government," Chaudhry said.
He said that Pakistan has been fully supportive of the reconciliation process in the war-torn country on the specific request of the Afghan leaders.
General Sher Mohammad Karimi in an interview to BBC said that Pakistan could end the festering about the 12-year-old conflict through its influence on the militants fighting Afghan and western troops.

The remarks by Afghan army chief came on the heels of president Hamid Karzai's statement on Saturday that Pakistan was trying to divide his country into Afghan fiefs by advocating political power for them in some provinces.

The relations between the two countries have deteriorated due to allegations made by Afghanistan and retaliatory statements made by Pakistan criticising Afghan leaders.
"Pakistan has exercised extreme restraint in the face of highly provocative language used by the Afghan civil and military officials over the last few months, not to mention some totally fabricated accusations," Chaudhry said in the latest statement.
He said Pakistan will not be deterred in its efforts to support the international community's efforts to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan but hoped that Afghan officials would refrain from levelling baseless allegations.

Pakistan has helped to make the Doha office of Taliban operational last month but Karzai was angered by the militants using their flag and official name and posing as Afghan government in exile.