Pakistan dismisses BBC Taliban support claim

Pakistan on Sunday strongly rejected assertions made in a BBC documentary that the Pakistani security services are supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan The BBC series Secret Pakistan' program accuses Pakistan of playing a double game, acting as America's ally in public while secretly training and arming its enemy in Afghanistan, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding "the series makes baseless and fabricated allegations." "Fiction such as those depicted in the series cannot belittle Pakistan's sacrifices and contribution in countering terrorism," the statement said. It added that Pakistan has borne the brunt of terrorist violence including suicide attacks. The Pakistani army had also strongly denied claims made in the BBC documentary and the army spokesman Major Gen Athar Abbas described the allegations made by the U.S. and Afghan officials as "baseless and malicious." He said that the U.S. and Afghanistan were trying to blame Pakistan for their own failures, adding that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had itself suffered at the hands of al-Qaeda and its affiliates. He said that about 300 ISI officials had died in attacks. BBC spokeswoman Helen Deller said that the documentary was made in line with BBC editorial guidelines and did "not attempt to take sides." "Secret Pakistan was made in accordance with the BBC's editorial guidelines, information we gained was checked with multiple sources and the program strove to be fair and accurate," she said.