Afghan Official Says Pakistan Backing Taliban
Mon April 14, 2003 07:23 AM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - An Afghan official accused Pakistan on Monday of backing the re-emergence of the fundamentalist Taliban militia, and of involvement in the murder of two relatives of a provincial governor.
A cousin and another relative of Kandahar Governor Gul Agha Sherzai were killed by suspected Taliban militants in the Pakistani border town of Chaman on Sunday, while his brother, Sharif Sherzai, was also injured.
"Pakistan's hand is behind this event," Governor Sherzai's spokesman, Khalid Pashtun, told Reuters.
"The Taliban carried out the attack, but it happened in areas under the control of Pakistan and we have in the past passed on to them our complaints about their support for the Taliban.
"Without the support of Pakistan, the Taliban would not have been able to do it," he said.
The attack, carried out by two people on motorcycles, came a day after the governor's son, Asif, was beaten up in Chaman by several people, including Pakistani army officials, Pashtun said.
He said the shooting was carried out by members of the ousted Taliban regime which Pakistan backed until the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. The Taliban was ousted by U.S.-backed opposition groups in late 2001.
Around a thousand Afghans, mostly local government officials, demonstrated outside Pakistan's mission in Kandahar to protest against the killings, witnesses said. |
