Washington: US Senator John McCain has said that the ties between Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency, Inter Service Intelligence (ISI), and Afghan insurgents needed to be acknowledged.
“We have to deal with Pakistan on a basis of realism, that there are connections between the ISI and the Haqqani network and the Taliban,” The News quoted McCain, as saying.
Earlier, an Afghan district governor had accused the Pakistan government of protecting Taliban insurgents fighting US troops and the government in Afghanistan.
Bowri Tana Governor Wali Shah had claimed that Taliban militants are trained by ISI and come into Afghanistan to launch attacks.
He had also alleged that Pakistan does not want the violence in Afghanistan to stop, or the country to develop.
A prominent former militant commander had also said that militant groups, like Lashkar-e-Toiba, Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen and Hizbul Mujahedeen, are run by religious leaders, with the Pakistani military providing training, strategic planning and protection.
He reiterated Wali Shah’s statement that the Pakistani military supports the Afghan Taliban in their fight to force out American and NATO forces from Afghanistan.
ANI
