Pakistan rejects Afghan spy agency's claim on parliament attack

Pakistan on Thursday rejected the claim by the Afghan intelligence agency that an officer of Pakistan's spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, and the Haqqani Network were involved in the attack on the Afghan parliament earlier this week.

Afghanistan's intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), said on Wednesday that the attack on the parliament building in Kabul was planned in the Pakistani northwestern Peshawar city.

"We reject these allegations. These allegations have been leveled against ISI and its officers in the past as well," Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Qazi Khalilullah said.

"Pakistan is a well wisher of Afghanistan. We have commitment to our good neighborly relations and commitment to our relations with Afghanistan," Qazi said at his weekly briefing when his comments were sought about the NDS allegations.

Taliban had claimed responsibility for Monday's attack that had killed five people and injured 30 others. No member of parliament was hurt in the nearly three-hour standoff.

NDS spokesman Haseeb Sediqi told the media that one "Mawlawi Shireen, the military commander of Haqani network, masterminded the attack and Bilal who is an officer of the ISI provided financial and logistic support for it."

Sediqi could not provide any proofs to substantiate his allegations. He also claimed that about 7.5 million Pakistani rupees were spent on the attack.

The Pakistani spokesman said Pakistan and Afghanistan have been interacting at the highest level and "we have said in the past and I want to reiterate that enemies of Afghanistan are the enemies of Pakistan and a guiding principle of our relationship is that we will not allow our soil to be used against others."

To a question about a recent meeting between the Afghan Taliban leaders and the Kabul-backed High Peace Council, Qazi said Pakistan had facilitated the meeting. Endi