Afghanistan says it has evidence attackers trained in Pakistan

Senior Afghan authorities say they have given neighboring Pakistan evidence showing that the militants who carried out a recent series of deadly attacks were trained on Pakistani soil.

Afghan Interior Minister Wais Barmak and Masooom Stanekzai, head of the NDS intelligence service, told a press briefing in Kabul on Thursday that they had presented confessions by captured militants and other proof at a meeting a day earlier in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

"We provided Pakistan with documents about Taliban operating centers inside Pakistan and we expect Pakistan to act against them," Barmak said.

The remarks come a day after Barmak and Stanekzai attended the meeting, along with senior Pakistani intelligence and military officials in Islamabad.

The Afghan officials said they told the Pakistani side that some of the militants had been trained at seminaries in the Pakistani border town of Chaman. They also asked Pakistan to take action to prevent further attacks.

Afghan officials said Pakistan had agreed to take "practical steps" to act on the information but that was immediately disputed by Pakistani authorities.

The Pakistan Embassy in Kabul said in a statement that "Pakistan has not given any commitment to give reply to the information received from the NDS Chief Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai, during his trip to Islamabad, yesterday."

About 200 people have been killed over the past month in a series of attacks claimed by the Taliban and the Daesh terrorist group.

SS