Afghanistan's intel chief makes surprise visit Islamabad

Afghanistan’s intelligence chief and interior minister made a surprise visit to Pakistan’s capital on Wednesday following a recent spate of deadly attacks in Afghanistan.

The visit by Masoom Stanikzai and Wais Ahmed Barmak comes amid charges levelled by Afghanistan that some of the attacks were carried out by perpetrators linked to Pakistan’s powerful spy agency, the ISI.

The attacks, which have killed



nearly 200 people and wounded hundreds more, have been alternately claimed by the Taliban and the Islamic State group affiliate in Afghanistan. Most of the attacks in the capital Kabul have been blamed on the Haqqani network, whose links to Pakistan’s intelligence agency dates back to the 1980s Soviet invasion of Afghanistan when Pakistan and the United States were on the same page about using jihadi groups to oust invading Russian soldiers.