NDS chief Masoom Stanekzai said the Afghan government has handed a list of names over to Pakistan of people suspected of being involved in the recent attacks on Kabul.
 
Addressing a joint press conference with the Minister of Interior Wais Ahmad Barmak, Stanekzai said a number of people had been arrested in the past few days in connection with the attacks and that these suspects had given details about where they were trained and where attacks were being planned.
 
Barmak in turn said information gathered shows that attacks are being planned in Chaman area in Baluchistan in Pakistan and that the Afghan delegation to Pakistan handed over a list of madrasas where attacks are being planned.
 
This comes after the two senior government officials visited Pakistan on Wednesday and met with high-ranking intelligence and military leaders to discuss the recent attacks on Afghanistan.
 
Barmak said they met with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief and other high-ranking military officials to discuss the issue of insurgency and recent attacks and emphasized that the Taliban claimed responsibility for a number of attacks and said their orders were coming from Pakistan.
 
Barmak meanwhile implied Pakistan is cooperating with Afghanistan in the investigation and said Islamabad has promised Afghanistan it will take action against insurgents.
 
Stankezai said as a follow up, Pakistan will send a delegation to Kabul on Saturday to give feedback on questions Afghanistan put to them. He said their trip to Islamabad had been the first step in their investigation.
Barmak meanwhile said they will inform the public about any progress after Saturday’s visit by the Pakistanis.
 
Stankezai however stated it was “clear that attacks (on Afghanistan) are originating from across the border and that the international community knows where insurgents have safe havens.”
 
He would not however reveal the names of suspects on the list handed to the Pakistani’s – stating that it could jeopardize their enquiry.
 
Stanekzai also made it clear that recent attacks had been different and had targeted civilians, while the use of an ambulance in a bombing was also in contravention of international laws.
 
He said these “attacks clearly show crimes against humanity.”
 
This comes after a spate of attacks in Kabul and around the country in the past 12 days claimed close to 150 lives and wounded hundreds more.
 
In response to the remarks, Pakistani embassy in Kabul issued a press release on Thursday saying that the Pakistan delegation’s visit is not a follow up of the Afghan delegations’s trip to Pakistan. 
 
“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. The Pakistan delegation visiting Kabul on Saturday 3rd February 2018 is a consequence of the ongoing negotiations on the Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Solidarity (APAPS) since November last year. A press release to this effect was issued by the Embassy on 31st January 2018,” the press release said.  
 
The statement noted that the information provided by the NDS chief is being examined for its authenticity.