Pakistan Hits out at US on Kabul Attack Charge（在线收听）

Pakistan's government has denied links with the Haqqani network, a reportedly Pakistan-based militant group which was accused of masterminding a recent attack on the US embassy in Afghan capital, Kabul.

Pakistan has warned the United States it risks losing an ally if the US continues to publicly accuse Pakistan of supporting militants.

CRI's correspondent in Islamabad, Wang Qianting, has more.

 
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik has rebuffed US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen's accusation that the head of the Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence has close ties with the Haqqani network, which has ties to both al-Qaida and the Taliban.

"If you say that it is ISI involved in that attack, I categorically deny it. We have no such policy to attack or to aid attacks through Pakistani forces or through any Pakistani assistance. So please I assure you that is not there. It is not going to be there in future. But what is important, the impression which is being created, that has to go."

Malik has warned that the US cannot afford to alienate Pakistan and its people. He says that if the US continues to do so, it will escalate the crisis in relations between Pakistan and the US.

Mike Mullen told the US Congress that Haqqani operatives launched the attack last week on the US embassy in Kabul with the support of Pakistan's military intelligence, in which 25 people were killed.

"The Haqqani network, for one, acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan's Internal Services Intelligence agency. Haqqani operatives planned and conducted that truck bomb attack, as well as the assault on our embassy. In choosing to use violence extremism as an instrument of policy, the government of Pakistan jeopardizes not only the prospect of our strategic partnership but Pakistan's opportunity to be a respected nation with legitimate regional influence."

The U.S. military has said the Haqqani network poses the greatest threat to American troops in Afghanistan.

It is the most serious allegation leveled by the US against Pakistan since they began an alliance in the war on terror a decade ago.

US-Pakistan ties have deteriorated sharply after the killing of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Pakistan by US commandos earlier this year.

Moreover, US strikes targeting militants in Pakistani tribal areas and the controversy over the release of Raymond Davis, the CIA contractor who killed two Pakistani men in Lahore, have all contributed to the rift between the US and Pakistan.

For CRI, I am Wang Qianting from Islamabad.