Ghani slams Pakistan over recent attacks
Five dead in Taliban suicide blast on Kabul airport road
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani lambasted neighbouring Pakistan yesterday over a recent wave of insurgent attacks in the capital Kabul that killed at least 56 people.
"The last few days have shown that suicide bomber training camps and bomb-producing factories which are killing our people are as active as before in Pakistan," Ghani told a news conference.
"We hoped for peace but we are receiving messages of war from Pakistan."
Meanwhile, At least five people were killed yesterday when a Taliban suicide car bomber struck near the entrance of Kabul's international airport.
The attack follows a barrage of deadly bombings in the Afghan capital on Friday, which struck close to an army complex, a police academy and a US special forces base and killed at least 51 people.
Pakistan has historically supported the Taliban insurgents and many Afghans accuse it of nurturing militant sanctuaries on its soil in the hope of maintaining influence in Afghanistan.
Since coming to power last year Ghani has courted the Pakistanis, expending substantial domestic political capital in the process, in hopes Islamabad will persuade the Taliban to come to the negotiating table.
But his comments yesterday are the strongest yet against the neighbouring country.
"In my telephone call with Pakistan prime minister (on Sunday), I told Pakistan to see terrorism in Afghanistan the same way it sees terrorism in Pakistan," he said, referring to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
"I ask the Pakistani government if the mass killings of Shah Shaheed had happened in Islamabad and the perpetrators were in Afghanistan, what would you do?" he said, referring to a Kabul neighbourhood that suffered a fatal truck bombing on Friday.
Observers say the upsurge in violence represents a bid by new leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour to distract attention from the crisis roiling the militant movement as planned peace talks falter.
"The incident took place when a suicide car bomber struck the front gate of the airport," said Kabul police spokesman Ebadullah Karimi.