Kabul - Afghanistan yesterday turned up the heat on neighbouring Pakistan, accusing its intelligence service of helping the suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden criss-cross the border at will.
But Kabul's new rulers apparently backed down to Washington, saying the US bombing in their country should continue until all pockets of resistance from bin Laden's al-Qaeda fighters are crushed. The Border Affairs Minister, Mr Aminullah Zadran, said he had sent agents to the frontier to investigate suspected Pakistani intelligence complicity with bin Laden.
Mr Zadran, in an interview called for the deployment of international peacekeeping troops along the border to help catch bin Laden.
On Saturday the Interior Minister, Mr Yunis Qanooni, directly accused Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of helping bin Laden - the world's most wanted man - avoid capture.