No links with ISI; did not kill Burhanuddin Rabbani: Haqqani Network

KABUL: The operational leader of the Haqqani network has denied any recent links with the ISI and the recent killing of the Afghan peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani in an interview with the BBC released on Monday.

"We haven't killed Burhanuddin Rabbani and this has been said many times by the spokespersons of the Islamic Emirate," he said, referring to the Taliban.

President Hamid Karzai is reviewing his strategy for talking peace with the Taliban in the wake of the killing of Rabbani, who was chairman of the High Peace Council, his spokesman has said.

He said during the 1980s Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, mujahedeen fighters "had contacts with the intelligence agencies of Pakistan and other countries, but after the invasion by the Americans, there have never been contacts by intelligence agencies of other countries which could be effective for us."

The Haqqani network was founded by Jalaluddin Haqqani, a warlord who made his name during the 1980s jihad against the Soviets.

But his son Sirajuddin now effectively runs the network, which has been blamed for recent attacks including a 19-hour siege in Kabul last month that targeted the US embassy and international military headquarters.

The BBC, which posted the comments on its website, said it conducted the interview by submitting written questions to Haqqani, who then recorded an audio response.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011