Afghan Taliban rejects LSE report over its links with ISI

Washington, Jun.16 (ANI): The Afghan Taliban has rejected the London School of Economics (LSE) report, which claimed that it receives funding and training from the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), terming it as a part of false propaganda.

The US-based SITE intelligence Group, which monitors communications linked to international terrorism, said the Afghan Taliban described the reported links as "void of all truth, false and untrue propaganda."

The Taliban said that "no sound mind" would accept that Pakistan, which supports the United States, would back the jihad against the US in Afghanistan.

According to the intelligence group, a self-proclaimed Taliban 'shura' (council) member, in his message, alleged that the LSE's report was prepared to "protect" American and British interests in the war-ravaged Afghanistan, The Dawn reports.

According to the LSE's report, which is said to be based on interviews with nine Afghan Taliban commanders, the ISI is providing funding, training and sanctuary to the Taliban on a scale much larger than previously thought.

The report also said that President Asif Ali Zardari was reported to have visited senior Taliban prisoners in Pakistan earlier this year, where he is believed to have promised their release and help for militant operations.

Presidential spokeswoman Farah Ispahani has already dismissed the allegations in the report as "absolutely spurious."

"There seems to be a concentrated effort to try to damage the new Pakistan-American strategic dialogue," Ispahani had said. (ANI)