London, Oct 7: Launching another broadside against Pakistan, Afghan President Hamid Karzai today said the Taliban, that has launched some audacious attacks in his country will not be able to “move a finger without Pakistani support.”
As Afghanistan marked 10 years of the overthrow of the Taliban government today, Karzai said his government and US-led NATO have failed to provide Afghans with security.
Karzai said that it was a “serious shortcoming” that the Taliban were able to launch such spectacular attacks but also added that “these problems come from abroad” and pointed the finger at Pakistan's role in the Taliban insurgency.
“On the overall policy of Pakistan toward Afghanistan and towards Taliban, definitely, the Taliban will not be able to move a finger without Pakistani support,” Karzai told the BBC.
In recent months Afghanistan has seen a string of brazen assaults on major cities and military targets as well high profile assassinations, such as the killing last month of Afghan peace envoy and former president Burhanuddin Rabbani, allegedly by Taliban-linked Haqqani network, which is based in Pakistan.
Karzai also traced some of Afghanistan's current insecurity to military strategy in the early years of the war and the failure to tackle the Taliban sheltering in Pakistan's volatile tribal areas.
“NATO and the US and our neighbours in Pakistan should have concentrated a long time back, in the beginning of 2002-03, on the (Taliban) sanctuaries,” he said.
In an outburst following the killing of Rabbani, Karzai had accused Pakistan of refusing to support investigation and playing a “double game” on terrorism. PTI
