Members of Afghanistan’s intelligence service have accused a Pakistani intelligence officer in the country’s infamous Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) unit of helping the Taliban launch a sophisticated attack on the Afghan Parliament in Kabul on Monday.
The ISI intelligence officer relayed information to the Haqqani network to execute the Monday attack that killed two and wounded another thirty individuals, Afghan intelligence services spokesman Hassib Sediqqi alleged on Wednesday. The Afghan spokesman said the bomb used for the suicide attack was manufactured in Peshawar, Pakistan, which sits on the border between the two countries, the AP reports.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attacks, telling Reuters by phone, “We have launched an attack on Parliament as there was an important gathering to introduce the country’s defense minister.”
A spokesman for Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected the allegations that one of its intelligence officers helped the Taliban carry out the attacks on Kabul.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson, Qazi Khalilullah, told VOA:
You must have seen that as soon as the terrorist attacks took place on the Parliament, we issued condemnation on three levels. The prime minister himself did that, the speaker of the national assembly condemned the attack, and the foreign office also condemned the attack.
Following the complete withdrawal of U.S. and coalition forces from the country at the end of 2014, the Taliban has continued to make territorial gains as an insurgency that continues to threaten the sovereign integrity of the country. The Taliban initiated its most fierce round of assaults in April. The group is known to launch most of its attacks during the spring, due to advantageous geographic and weather conditions.
On Wednesday, Taliban forces remotely detonated a bomb that resulted in the death of a district governor in Badakhshan province.
This week alone, the jihadi group has captured two districts in Kunduz province, the Associated Press reported.
However, the U.S. State Department continues to insist that Afghanistan’s security conditions are improving.
“Although the insurgents have executed a number of violent attacks since the announcement of the 2015 fighting season, including the attack on Parliament, the (Afghan security forces) have demonstrated their growing capability to provide security,” a State Department spokesman told Reuters earlier this week.
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