ISLAMABAD, 20 May 2006 — Pakistan yesterday rejected allegations by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that it was training militants for violence and infiltrating them into Afghanistan.

“We are not supporting Taleban. We have asked Afghanistan to bring a single evidence to support their allegations. So far they have failed to come up with one,” Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri told Arab News.

Later, Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said: “There is no truth in these allegations as a stable Afghanistan is also in the interest of Pakistan. Pakistan is not providing training to insurgents and it is not sending them to Afghanistan.”

Karzai accused Pakistan of supporting the insurgents on Thursday after two days of fierce clashes in Afghanistan left around 100 people dead. Karzai alleged that hard-liners in Pakistani madrasas were sending students for jihad in Afghanistan. “We know very well that in Pakistani madrasas, boys are being told to go to Afghanistan for jihad. They’re being told to go and burn schools and clinics,” he said in a speech in Kunar. But Tasnim said Islamabad had no role in Afghanistan’s internal affairs.

“If there is unrest in Afghanistan, Pakistan is not responsible,” she said. “Peace and stability in Afghanistan is in Pakistan’s interest.” Pakistan also continued to support the process of rebuilding and reconciliation in Afghanistan, she said. “President Karzai himself has acknowledged Pakistan’s positive role in the presidential and parliamentary elections in Afghanistan,” Tasnim said. “When Afghan security forces fail to control the situation they start blaming Pakistan,” Tasnim said.

Pakistan’s military later rubbished a “ludicrous” claim by Col. Chris Vernon, chief of staff for British forces in southern Afghanistan, that Taleban militants were launching attacks in Afghanistan from its side of the border. “Instead of speaking to media, it would have been appropriate if Col. Vernon provided actionable and real time intelligence,” the statement said. “This media projection only reflects their own inadequacy to deal with the situation and they start trumpeting irrationally when they feel the heat,” it added.

Meanwhile, sources from Quetta told Arab News that a key Taleban commander, Mullah Dadullah, was arrested by the International Security Assistance Force. Dadullah was a right-hand man of Mullah Omar. The sources said another important Taleban leader Mullah Sazil was nabbed from Kandahar on Wednesday.

Rebels Blow Up Gas Pipeline

Suspected tribal militants blew up two natural gas pipelines in Pakistan’s troubled southwest province of Balochistan overnight, officials said yesterday. One pipeline was blown up at Goh, around 9 kilometers from Sui. The second was attacked an hour later on the Loti gas field supplying the Sui plant.

Tribal Leader Shot Down

Suspected insurgents yesterday killed a senior pro-government tribal elder and dumped his body on a road in the restive tribal region near the Afghan border, officials said. Totti Gul, a leading supporter of Pakistan’s anti-Al-Qaeda campaign in the tribal district of North Waziristan, was dragged out of his car by unknown men and later shot dead, a tribal security official said. Gul was the leader of the Dawar tribe in Darpakhel district.