Pakistan hits back on Afghanistan: Look into killings of pro-Pak men

Pakistan today rejected as "baseless" the Afghan allegation that ISI was involved in the assassination of peace council chief Burhanuddin Rabbani, even as Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said President Hamid Karzai had "some misunderstandings" over the issue.

Pakistan's Foreign Office termed the allegations as "irresponsible", in turn asking Kabul to examine why people favourably disposed towards Islamabad were being killed.

Afghan Interior Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi's allegations about the Inter-Service Intelligence agency's involvement in the assassination of Rabbani are "baseless", said a statement issued this evening by the Foreign Office.

"Instead of making such irresponsible statements, 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," the statement said.

Without giving details, the Foreign Office contended there was "a need to take stock of the direction taken by Afghan intelligence and security agencies".

The countering statement came a day after Gilani said Pakistan is ready to provide any security or intelligence assistance in probing the killing of Rabbani, which Kabul blames on the Taliban's Quetta Shura.

"I want to convey to President Hamid Karzai, who is my brother and friend and with whom we have good relations, that he has some misunderstandings on the assassination of Professor Rabbani," Gilani said.

"They (Afghans) cannot doubt us. Pakistanis are a self-respecting nation. Pakistan neither interferes in anyone's affairs nor allows anyone's interference in our affairs," he said.

Interior Minister Mohammadi had told Afghanistan's parliament yesterday that his government had handed over "documents and proof" of the ISI's alleged involvement in Rabbani's assassination to the Pakistan government.

"There are no doubts that ISI had its involvement in the plot," he told Afghan lawmakers.

Lutifullah Mashal, a spokesperson for the Afghan intelligence service, told a news conference in Kabul yesterday that Rabbani's killing was planned is a town called Satellite near Quetta in southwest Pakistan.

Hamidullah Akundzadeh, a key person involved in the assassination, had been arrested and provided "lots of strong evidence", Mashal said.

The Pakistan Foreign Office statement said the "so-called evidence given to the Pakistan Embassy in Kabul is actually a confessional statement" of Akundzadeh, an Afghan national accused of masterminding the assassination.

"The concerned authority will work upon this piece of information," it said.

The statement contended that the Afghan Interior Minister has not "highlighted the fact that the assassin and his handler were roaming around in Kandahar and Kabul for quite some time" or that "the assassin had been four days in the guesthouse of the High Peace Council managed by Afghans close to" Rabbani.

Rabbani was killed by a Taliban operative posing as a peace emissary who had explosives hidden in his turban. He detonated the bomb during a meeting at Rabbani's home.

"The assassin was also apparently not body searched before the meeting. These facts are also part of the confession handed over to the (Pakistan) embassy by the Afghan intelligence," the statement said.