Pakistan rejects Kabul claim

Pakistan on Friday rejected a claim by the Afghan leader that it was backing the Taliban militants in Afghanistan to stir up violence that left over 100 people dead there this week.

Photo: Pakistan rejects Kabul claim

Pakistan rejects Kabul claim

" Pakistan is actively working with Kabul in coordinating and sharing intelligence in the fight against terrorism," Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri told the Senate, Pakistan 's upper house of parliament in the capital, Islamabad .

Kasuri made his comments a day after Kabul said gunbattles and suicide attacks there had killed more than 100, mostly insurgents.

At least 15 Afghan police, an American civilian training Afghan forces, and the first female Canadian soldier also died in some of the bloodiest violence since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday blamed Pakistan for the violence.

"We have credible reports that inside Pakistan , in the madrassas (religious schools), the mullahs and teachers are saying to their students: 'Go to Afghanistan for jihad. Burn the schools and clinics,"' he said.

On Friday, while winding up a debate on foreign policy, Kasuri asked Karzai not to blame Pakistan_ a key ally of the United States in its war on terror, for what was happening inside Afghanistan .

Pakistan used to be a main supporter of Afghanistan 's former Taliban regime, but it switched sides in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 , attacks in the United States , and has backed Karzai since then.

It has also deployed about 80,000 troops near Afghan border, but the increasing violence inside Afghanistan has fueled suspicions in Kabul that Pakistan may be still helping the Taliban who are believed to be hiding near Pakistan-Afghan border, reports the AP.

I.L.