Afghanistan Claims ISI helping Bin Laden

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ISI helping Bin Laden, alleges Afghanistan


KABUL, Dec 30 (AFP)--Afghanistan called Sunday for the deployment of
international peacekeeping troops along its border with Pakistan to
combat what it claims is Pakistani intelligence assistance to Osama
Bin Laden.

Border affairs minister Aminullah Zadran said that he had already
sent his agents to the frontier to investigate what he called
suspicious activities by Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence
(ISI).

On Saturday interior minister Yunis Qanooni, interviewed on Iranian
television, directly accused the ISI of helping the suspected
terrorist mastermind escape capture. Zadran slammed what he called
interference in Afghanistan's internal affairs.

"If Pakistan, which helped the mujahedin in the past, interferes in
our borders, they will become enemies," he said. He voiced suspicion
about Pakistani activities.

"We have noticed that Pakistani agents from the Inter Services
Intelligence are active on the border. They claim to be looking for
Osama Bin Laden but we do not know exactly what their objective is or
if they are telling the truth."

He added: "At this stage of looking for Osama Bin Laden, we need
these foreigners (troops from the International Security Assistance
Force), and funding during the second stage to stop drug
trafficking."

Qanooni in his interview said that the ISI was monitoring bin Laden's
trips to Pakistan.

"Undoubtedly they knew what was going on. The fact that there has not
been any reaction and that (bin Laden) has not been arrested,
indicates that he is somehow being supported by the Pakistani ISI."

But the interior minister added that the attitude of Pakistan's
political leadership was "distinct to that of the ISI". "According to
our latest information, he is still doing what he was doing before.
It means that they are not in a fixed location," Qanooni said.

"When he is outside Afghanistan, he mainly goes to Pakistan. He has
also been spotted in one of the eastern areas of Afghanistan. That
means that they are on the move. They are not in a fixed location.
They are mainly in Pakistan and possibly in Afghanistan."

Members of Afghanistan's interim government, especially those from
the Northern Alliance which battled the former Taliban regime, have
little love for Pakistan, which for years supported the
fundamentalist Taliban militia.

On Sunday defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Habeel repeated earlier
claims by his ministry that bin Laden was using the Pakistani border
town of Peshawar as a base. "He is definitely in Peshawar under the
protection of (militant party Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam head) Fazelur
Rahman," Habeel said.

"Our intelligence is absolutely accurate, we even have the names of
those Taliban commanders who helped Osama to get to the other side of
the border," he said. Jamiat has denied the claim.

Habeel said that Afghanistan should no longer be held responsible for
arresting Bin Laden.

"We are no longer responsible, he has already left our country. From
now on this is the responsibility of the Pakistani government. It
must cooperate with the US in arresting Osama."

Meanwhile, the Afghan government and the international community have
finally reached an agreement allowing the deployment of foreign
peacekeeping troops, Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said Sunday.

"An agreement has already been finalised," he told reporters. A
British embassy spokesman said earlier the deal was expected to be
initialled later in the day.
 
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