Alleged Taliban commanders have said that they are being trained and equipped with weapons by the Pakistan’s premier Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate to fight US-led forces in Afghanistan, BBC reported on Wednesday.
According to the report, despite a quick denial from the Pakistan Army, the allegations could further deteriorate ties between Pakistan and the US.
A number of middle-ranking Taliban commanders revealed the extent of Pakistani support in interviews for a BBC Two documentary series – “Secret Pakistan” – the first part of which was broadcast on Wednesday.
One Taliban commander, Mullah Qaseem, was quoted by the BBC as saying, the important things for a fighter are supplies and a hiding place. “Pakistan plays a significant role. First they support us by providing a place to hide which is really important. Secondly, they provide us with weapons,” he said,.
Other Taliban commanders told how they and their fighters were, and are, trained in a network of camps in Pakistan.
An alleged commander Mullah Azizullah says, the experts running the training are either members of the ISI or have close links with the Pakistan’s powerful spy service.
“They are all ISI men. They are the ones who run the training. First they train us about bombs; then they give us practical guidance,” he was quoted as saying.
Commander Najib, another alleged Taliban commander said, al Qaeda trainers also operated in the camps.
“I was in the camp for a month … They were giving us practical training in whatever weapons we specialised in … suicide bombers were taken to a different section and kept apart from us. Those who were taught to be suicide bombers were there,” he said.
Amrullah Saleh, head of the Afghan intelligence from 2004 to 2010, said Syed Akbar, a Pakistani believed to be smuggling guns to the Taliban, told the Afghan intelligence he had escorted Bin Laden from one location to another.
“The information we had was suggesting Mansehra was the town where Bin Laden was hiding … after so many years, it turns out that Bin Laden was about 12 miles from that location,” he said.
Saleh and Afghan President Hamid Karzai took the evidence to Musharraf who, according to Saleh, reacted angrily.
“He [Musharraf] banged the table and looked at President Karzai and said, ‘am I president of a banana republic? If not, then how can you tell me Bin Laden is hiding in a settled area of Pakistan?’ I said ‘well, this is the information so you can go and check it’,” Saleh said.
The BBC said Pakistan strongly denied the allegations made in the programme.
The chief military spokesperson, Maj-Gen Athar Abbas, told the BBC: “To say that these militant groups were being supported by the state with the organised camps in these areas … I think nothing could be further from the truth.”
The US is ratcheting up pressure on Pakistan asking the country to squeeze the militants in their ‘safe havens’ in the tribal regions. In an apparent move to bludgeon Islamabad into compliance, thousands of Nato and Afghan troops amassed on the border with North Waziristan.
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