Pakistan and US trade accusations as peace envoy is buried in Kabul

Army chief tells America to stop playing the ‘blame game’ as he hit back against claims his country is secretly supporting Taliban The bloodstained theatrics of Afghanistan’s power game continued to play out as Hamid Karzai’s government buried its main peace envoy while Pakistan’s army chief hit back at American accusations that his country is secretly supporting the Taliban. In Kabul, shots rang out over the coffin of Burhanuddin Rabbani, a former president who was assassinated by a suicide bomber on Tuesday , during an emotional and sometimes rowdy funeral on a city hillside. Angry mourners shouted “death to Karzai” and “death to the ISI”, highlighting the growing isolation of the president who appointed Rabbani, and public anger towards the Pakistani spy agency many Afghans blame for his death. Amrullah Saleh, a former spy chief and rising political star, made a fiery speech to supporters outside the graveyard. “The government doesn’t have the right to talk with enemies any more. Nothing will come of so much talking,” he said. “Just wait for a call. Very soon we will come to the streets.” Hours later, Pakistan’s army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, denied allegations that he was waging a “proxy war” in Afghanistan through the Haqqani network, a ruthless militant outfit which the US military chief, Admiral Mike Mullen, described as a “veritable arm” of the ISI . “Admiral Mullen knows fully well which countries are in contact with the Haqqanis. Singling out Pakistan is neither fair nor productive,” Kayani said in a terse statement issued 24 hours after Mullen’s stinging comments to the US Congress. Kayani called on the US to stop the “blame game” and “give way to a constructive and meaningful engagement for a stable and peaceful Afghanistan”. Senior American officials have issued an extraordinary series of verbal assaults on the Pakistani military since Haqqani militants carried out an audacious attack on the US embassy in Kabul on 13 September. Citing phone intercepts, US officials said they had linked fighters at the scene of the 20-hour battle to ISI officials in Pakistan, a senior Pakistani official said. The US also accuses the ISI of orchestrating a truck bomb attack on a US base near Kabul on 10 September that wounded 77 US soldiers – one of the highest casualty tolls against western forces in the 10-year conflict. The defence secretary, Leon Panetta, the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and the CIA chief, David Petraeus, have all called on Pakistan to cut its links to the Haqqanis. Pakistan denies the links exist. But it was Mullen’s harsh comments on Thursday that sent ripples through political circles in Islamabad, where some worry the frayed relationship is edging towards violent confrontation. “This is very serious and I’m extremely worried,” said Talat Masood, a retired general and veteran commentator. “One side has to pull back or change course. If they continue

Posted by on September 23, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.