Islamabad has dismissed the Afghan president's "baseless and unfounded" allegations that last week’s killing of a powerful provincial police chief in southern Afghanistan was planned in Pakistan.
“No hard evidence or intelligence related information has been shared to date with Pakistan to substantiate such claims,” the Foreign Office said on October 24, a day after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani alleged that the attack on a gathering of security chiefs in the city of Kandahar was orchestrated in Pakistan.
On October 18, a gunman wearing a uniform of the Afghan security forces opened fire on the gathering, killing Kandahar Province’s powerful police chief, General Abdul Raziq, provincial intelligence head Abdul Momin Hassankhail, and a journalist.
U.S. Brigadier General Jeffrey Smiley was among 13 people wounded in the attack.
The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Scott Miller, also attended the meeting but was not injured.
“I want to say that this conspiracy was plotted in Pakistan,” Ghani said during a trip to Kandahar on October 23. “So Pakistan should give us the criminals so that we can bring them to justice.”
Kabul and Washington have both repeatedly accused Pakistan of providing safe havens for militants, a claim Islamabad has denied and countered with charges that Pakistani insurgents have found sanctuary in Afghanistan.
