Author: Press Trust of India
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: January 18, 2006
URL: http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=61612
Following a recent spate of attacks by Taliban-al
Qaeda groups in Afghanistan, a provincial governor has accused Pakistan of
training and equipping Taliban suicide bombers who have killed at least 33
persons in Kandahar province, reports said today.
"The suicide bombers are trained and
equipped by Pakistan and then sent to Afghanistan for sabotage activities,"
Kandahar governor Assadullah Khalid was quoted as saying in the Pakistani
newspaper Daily Times.
He said Pakistan was "sheltering and
allowing senior Taliban officials on its soil and, in some cases, the suicide
bombers are even Pakistani nationals".
Khalid was quoted as saying "since all
senior Taliban(leaders) have got their houses there (in Pakistan) and use
some of them as training camps, the government should know what is going on".
Escalating violence has caused some NATO members
to agonise over plans to send more peacekeeping troops to southern Afghanistan
to allow the US-led forces trim their presence there, the Daily Times said.
In a related report, it said the United Nations
has closed its offices in Balochistan province of Pakistan following threats
mentioning al Qaeda network. An unidentified caller issued 'credible' threat
to the office of UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Quetta.
The newspaper quoted UN humanitarian coordinator
Janvande Moortele as saying that following the threat, he decided to withdraw
people from the field and close down the office. A suicide bomb attack had
killed 22 people in an Afghan town across Quetta on Monday, it said.
