“I cannot find Mullah Mohammad Omar,’’ Karzai said, referring to the Taliban’s one-eyed leader. “Where is he? I cannot find the Taliban council. Where is it?’’
“I don’t have any other answer except to say that the other side for this negotiation is Pakistan,’’ Karzai said.
Most of the Taliban leadership is thought to be living in Pakistan, and its governing council - known as the Quetta Shura - is based in the southern Pakistani city of Quetta. It has long been believed that the Pakistani government has sheltered and influenced the group.
Afghanistan said yesterday that it had evidence that Rabbani’s assassination was planned by Taliban figures living in Quetta.
Afghan Interior Minister Besmillah Mohammadi went even further, telling Afghan lawmakers yesterday that Pakistan’s intelligence service, known as the ISI, was involved in Rabbani’s killing - an allegation that Pakistan has denied. “Without any doubt, ISI is involved in this,’’ Mohammadi said.
Last week, US officials leveled accusations of their own, saying Pakistan’s spy agency assisted the Haqqani network - a militant group allied with Al Qaeda and the Taliban - in attacks on Western targets in Afghanistan. It was the most serious allegation yet of Pakistani duplicity in the 10-year war.
The Pakistan-based Haqqani network has been described as the top security threat in Afghanistan.
NATO said yesterday that it captured Haji Mali Khan, a senior Haqqani leader inside Afghanistan, describing his arrest as a “significant milestone’’ in disrupting the terror group’s operations.
The group has been blamed for hundreds of attacks, including a 20-hour siege of the US Embassy and NATO headquarters last month.
The United States and other members of the international community have in the past accused Pakistan of allowing the Taliban, and the Haqqanis in particular, to maintain safe havens in the country’s tribal areas along the Afghan border - particularly in North Waziristan.
