Taliban leader killed by British forces in Afghanistan was a Pak Army officer
London, Oct 12 : British officials covered up evidence that a Taliban commander
killed by special forces in Helmand last year was in fact a Pakistani military officer,
according to highly placed Afghan officials.
The commander, targeted in a compound in the Sangin valley, was one of six killed in
the past year by Special Air service regiment and Special Boat Service regiment of the
British Army. When the British soldiers entered the compound they discovered a Pakistani
military ID on the body, The Times reported.
It was the first physical evidence of covert Pakistani military operations against
British forces in Afghanistan even though Islamabad insists it is a close ally in the war
against terror.
Britain's refusal to make the incident public led to a row with the Afghan President
Hamid Karzai, who has long accused London of viewing Afghanistan through the eyes of
Pakistani military intelligence, which is widely believed to have been helping the
Taliban.
"He feels he has been telling everyone about Pakistan for the past six years and here
was the evidence, yet London refused to release it, because they care more about their
relations with Islamabad than Kabul," said a source close to Karzai.
"He knows Britain is worried about inflaming its large Pakistani population, but that
is no excuse," the source added.
So furious was Karzai that he threatened to expel British diplomats. When some months
later he was informed by the governor of Helmand that British officials were secretly
negotiating with the Taliban, he expelled two men and accused Britain of wanting to set up
a training camp for former Taliban fighters.
Karzai will visit London next month for talks with Gordon Brown in an attempt to repair
the strained relations between the two countries.
The Afghan claims of Pakistani involvement in Helmand were backed by a senior United
Nations official who said he had been told by his superiors to keep quiet after Pakistan's
Ambassador to the UN apparently threatened to stop contributing forces to peacekeeping
missions.
--ANI
