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ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Army yesterday rejected media reports in Afghan press, which claimed the country’s security officials were involved in the recent capture of Kunduz city of Afghanistan by the Taliban.

In Washington, US Army General John Campbell said in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee over airstrike on a hospital in Kunduz blamed Iran for financing Taliban in Afghanistan.

“The allegations levelled by an Afghan official are totally unfounded, baseless, uncalled for and mischievous,” said an Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement.

Taliban militants last month had stormed the Afghan city Kunduz, effectively overrunning it in their biggest triumph since being ousted from national power in 2001. At least 55 people have been killed and hundreds wounded in sometimes fierce fighting that marks an escalation in the Taliban’s campaign to topple the Western-backed government in Kabul and reintroduce their harsh interpretation of Islamic law

The bloody three-day conquest of the northern city was harsh evidence that Afghan forces are not yet able to face the insurgents on their own, despite the US pouring in more than $60 billion to train government troops and build their capacity since 2001.

The ISPR said Pakistan was supporting an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process and condemned Kunduz attack, and such allegations were incomprehensible.

“Such accusations are not a responsible behaviour and need not be repeated in the better interest of addressing the actual threat,” the statement added.

Pakistan has already said it will not accept occupation of any part of Afghanistan by any group.

The American commander of international forces in Afghanistan, Cambell’s testimony also vindicated Pakistan stance in which he told the US senate body that while Afghan president Ashraf Ghani is trying to work with Pakistan to minimise the harm from various terrorist groups, Iran is providing money and weapons to the Taliban in western Afghanistan.

He said the Taliban has emerged with new force and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has become a major power player in recent years. He added that Ghani has asked multiple times for coalition forces to continue aiding his country.

Afghanistan is however confident that Pakistan is behind the Taliban and it is Islamabad that is the biggest challenge to achieving peace

The recent war in the Northern Province of Kundoz greatly complicates diplomacy and may potentially even deteriorate the military situation in the region. Therefore, it certainly requires Pakistan and Afghanistan to maintain a level of co-operation with each other to avoid further deterioration.

The insurgents, for their part, have loudly trumpeted their victory in Kunduz. Taliban said the offensive in the city was a “symbolic victory... we showed our power to the world”.

Taliban said every militant group in Afghanistan was now praising the new leadership of Mulla Akhtar Mansour. “All the splinter groups are now contacting us.

We are stronger than in the past.” While Pakistan wants good friendly relations with Afghanistan, Ghani — whose ascension to power was predicted as the beginning of a new era in off-again-on-again Pakistan-Afghanistan relations — had lambasted Pakistan following a string of Taliban attacks in and around Kabul in July and August that killed over 50 people.

In September, Pakistan said an attack on Pakistan Air Force’s Badaber camp base was planned in and controlled from Afghanistan.

The next day, Afghan President Ghani rejected in a statement the Pakistani claims and said his country “has never, nor will it ever allow its territory to be used against other states.”

Pakistan’s National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz responded by telling told local media that his country will provide evidence about the Badaber Base attack to Afghan authorities.

The relation between two countries are further deteriorating as Pakistan suspect an Indian hand in Afghan government’s coldness towards Islamabad.

Pakistan believes Afghanistan’s intelligence agency NDS has joined hands with Indian secret service RAW to carry out subversive activities in Pakistan at a time when its war against terror is in decisive phase. Although RAW’s role in creating problems for Pakistan is no secret, NDS’s willingness to cooperate with Islamabad’s known enemy is being regarded as a setback to the government’s political initiative of improving bilateral ties.

Official sources earlier had told The Nation that Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) and India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) were stepping up terrorist activities on Pakistani soil to aid and abet more deadly terror attacks. According to them, the intelligence inputs acquired through communication intercepts and human intelligence sources indicate NDS would focus Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, settled areas of the tribal belt, Gilgit Baltistan and Balochistan. However NDS would assist the RAW in Balochistan to sustain its operations linked to Baloch separatist groups. RAW would also focus on Punjab and Sindh.