By IANS,
Washington : Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen Thursday accused the Pakistani government of supporting the Al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network.
Mullen called the Haqqani network a “veritable arm” of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the country’s spy agency, as he testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the US strategy in Afghanistan and Iraq, reported Xinhua.
He said the ISI-supported Haqqani network was behind recent attacks in Afghanistan including the Sep 11 truck bomb attack and the Sep 13 assault on the US embassy in Kabul.
Mullen, who steps down next week, said the Pakistani government’s link to the extremist group would undermine the already troubled US-Pakistani relationship as well as the US-led counterterrorism campaign in Afghanistan.
Pakistan dismissed US accusations that the ISI is using the Haqqani network for a proxy war in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Speaking at a regular weekly briefing Thursday, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Tehmina Janjua said Pakistan has no cooperation with the Haqqani network and was not fighting any war through the Haqqanis in Afghanistan.