Last Hope
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A.Rehman Malik lied to please ISI
KARACHI: Afghan Minister of Interior Hanif Atmar told US Deputy Ambassador in Kabul that public claims by his Pakistani counterpart (Rehman Malik) that Afghanistan has admitted to hosting Anti-Pakistan terrorist training camps, an outright lie and was an attempt to please Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
US Deputy Ambassador in Kabul, Francis J. Ricciardone in 8/19/2009 secret cable from Embassy of Kabul wrote details of his meeting with Afghanistan Interior Minister Hanif Atmar.
The cable said: "Atmar said that Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik raised this issue when he visited Afghanistan last month as a special emissary of President Asif Ali Zardari; but, contrary to Malik's claims to the Pakistani media (Geo News), he had presented neither details nor evidence to support this assertion. Atmar said the move was an indication that Malik is trying to please the ISI by showing that he was brave enough to say these things to President Karzai".
"He added that he was disappointed by several other factually incorrect comments Malik has made to the media, and that he seemed to be focused on everything but the points of discussion in the upcoming trilateral talks between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the U.S. scheduled for November."
Accoding to the cable, Atmar accepted that there was a refugee camp in Kandahar that serves 400 to 500 Balochi and Sindhi separatists who fled Pakistan following former President Musharaff's crackdown on their separatist movements.
But in his note the ambassador wrote: "Neither the GIRoA (Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan) nor UNHCR run official refugee camps in Kandahar. UNHCR lists only 100 registered refugees within all of Afghanistan, far exceeding the number of persons described above".
Atmar held a press conference on August 2 to dispute several of Malik's allegations. He also challenged Malik's comments that Afghanistan initially was opposed to the installation of biometrics collection stations at border crossing points. Afghanistan has never been against it, and Afghanistan is against selectivity, Atmar told the media.
"Atmar also took issue with Malik's statement that 90 percent of terrorists arrested in Pakistan were of Afghan origin. We disagree with this point, Atmar said during the press conference. We have strong evidence that there are four categories of terrorists."
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