By IANS,
Islamabad : Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has refuted allegations that its personnel were assisting Taliban militants to cross over into the country from Afghanistan.
“The report is misleading, factually incorrect and based on propaganda to create doubts and suspicion in the minds of the target audience about Pakistan’s role in supporting the coalition forces in Afghanistan,” an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) spokesman was quoted as saying by the Dawn Wednesday.
“Such reports, which keep appearing in international media from time to time, are not without a design and have a definite agenda to follow,” the spokesman added.
A Rand Corp. report titled “Counter Insurgency in Afghanistan” had said earlier this week that personnel of the ISI and the Frontier Corps were assisting Afghan militants in crossing over.
“The spokesman termed it yet another smear campaign to malign the Pakistan armed forces and create differences as well as misunderstanding among the coalition partners,” Dawn reported Wednesday.
He clarified that no government official from the Frontier Corps or any intelligence agency was providing any material or financial support to the Taliban fighting in Afghanistan.
On the contrary, US civil and military officials in their interactions at various levels have always appreciated and acknowledged the role and sacrifices of Pakistan armed forces in the fight against terrorism, the spokesman added.
He stressed that none of the allegations levelled in the report had ever been raised by coalition officials in their formal or informal interactions with Pakistani officials.
“Pakistan armed forces have suffered heavy casualties to normalise the situation and bring peace and stability in the area. Any attempt to destabilise the situation will not be in the overall interest of the coalition.
“We, therefore, reject and condemn all the allegations made in the report and caution all concerned not to be misled and misguided by the contents of the report,” the spokesman maintained.