India slams Pak over WikiLeaks charges

NEW DELHI: India has slammed Pakistan over reported links between Islamabad's premier intelligence agency and the Afghan Taliban that were revealed in the recent leak of secret Pentagon files.

Reams of material leaked to Internet whistleblower site WikiLeaks accuse Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) - the nation's most powerful spy service - of secretly helping the Afghan insurgency.

"Sponsorship of terrorism, as an instrument of policy, is wholly condemnable and must cease forthwith," an Indian foreign ministry spokesman said late Tuesday.

India has long accused Pakistan of failing to take credible steps to crack down on Islamic militant groups operating on its soil such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed for the 2008 attacks in Mumbai which left 166 people dead.

"The utilization of territory under Pakistan's control to provide sanctuaries for recruiting and sustaining terrorist groups, and to direct terrorist activity against neighbours, must stop," the spokesman said.

Pakistan must not allow its territory to be used as a base for militancy "if our region is to attain its full potential for peaceful development", he added.

The leaks, published in newspapers on Sunday, have fuelled accusations that the ISI since 2004 armed, trained and financed the Taliban.

Pakistan has called the documents "skewed" and out of step with reality on the ground.

The United States has long suspected the ISI of playing a double game. Pakistan was a close ally of the 1996-2001 Taliban regime and is believed to have kept relations alive to prepare for when US troops eventually withdraw.

Analysts also believe India and Pakistan, implacable South Asian rivals, are locked in a new struggle for influence in Afghanistan, which has fuelled attacks on Indian interests there.