ISLAMABAD, April 24 (IslamOnline.net) - Pakistan strongly rebuffed accusations by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that Taliban forces were regrouping inside Pakistan and also denied the presence of any alleged terrorists wanted by Kabul on Pakistani soil.

“There are no Taliban regrouping or seeking shelter in Pakistan” Aziz Ahmed Khan, a foreign office spokesman told reporters here on Thursday, April 24.

The denial of harboring “any Taliban remnants” in Pakistan came a day after Karzai, who was on a two-day visit to Pakistan, charged that senior Taliban commanders were hiding in the country.

He identified them as top Taliban military commander and internal security chief Mullah Birada; Akhtar Mohammad Usmani, the closest confidante of Taliban leader Mullah Omar; former intelligence chief Mullah Dadullah and former Kandahar intelligence chief Hazfiz Mujeeb.

Karzai accused the four of perpetrating war crimes in Afghanistan and said they were also behind a continuing campaign of violent attacks against the Afghan government.

The Pakistani spokesman said none of the named Taliban leaders, or any other Taliban remnants were in Pakistan.

Kabul has grown increasingly alarmed about increasing number of attacks launched by Taliban forces against the Afghan militiamen over the past two months, allegedly from Pakistan.

The message apparently being passed on to Kabul is that they shouldn’t be hoping that Pakistan would work as a police force of Afghanistan, hunting down and arresting those alleged criminals which Afghans have failed to arrest.

“If the Afghan government has failed in apprehending some of the senior Taliban leaders, it doesn’t mean that they are not in that country” one senior government official commented on the Kabul demands of handing over senior Taliban leadership.

Pakistan flat refusal to give any weight to the demand made by Karzai is reflective of Islamabad’s policy of non-interference in Afghanistan internal affairs, the official said.