Report: Pakistan harboring Taliban

GHAZNI, Afghanistan - Intercepted phone calls show Taliban commanders have been orchestrating deadly attacks here and in other parts of Afghanistan from a safe haven across the border in Pakistan, the Associated Press reported, quoting an unnamed senior Afghan intelligence official.

The resurgent Taliban forces, who were chased from Afghanistan two years ago by the U.S.-led war, are getting protection from Islamic hardline politicians and rogue elements of Pakistani security, Afghan and Western officials charge.

President Hamid Karzai, in a speech Tuesday to the United Nations, said that from "cross-border militant infiltrations to hateful teachings at places disguised as madrasas (Islamic religious schools), terrorism continues to make inroads into the space of peace and prosperity."

Ghazni province, southwest of Kabul, has been on the front lines of the recent violence, and many residents say the local government and security officials have been unable or unwilling to end the insurgency.

Former Taliban members walk the streets of this hardscrabble town, hiding only behind a change of clothes. They tried to assassinate the police chief last week and have turned the back roads into a gantlet of fear for aid workers.

A Sept. 8 order for Taliban fighters in Zabul to retreat during U.S. bombing came in a satellite phone call from a commander in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province, the AP reported, quoting the unnamed senior Afghan official.

"We have this impression that Quetta and surrounding areas are being used by hardcore Taliban forces," Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said in an interview in his Kabul office.

Pakistani officials strongly deny that the Taliban are receiving sanctuary in their territory.

"There is no truth to the allegations that Taliban have bases in Quetta to harm the interests of President Hamid Karzai's government," Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema said Tuesday. As head of the Interior Ministry's crisis unit, Cheema is in charge of cooperating with the United States in the war on terrorism.

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