MUMBAI -- India's national security adviser has said he blames Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency for a suicide bomb attack on the Indian Embassy that killed scores of people in Kabul last week.
"We have no doubt that the ISI is behind this," M.K. Narayanan told Indian news channel NDTV late on July 12.
"We are in the favor of the peace process, but the ISI is not in any way part of it," he said, according to a transcript of the interview on the NDTV website. "The ISI is playing evil. The ISI needs to be destroyed."
Narayanan told another news channel that India had a "fair amount" of evidence linking the ISI to the July 7 car bomb that killed 41 people, including an Indian defense attache and a diplomat.
Afghan authorities had also hinted that they suspected the ISI, a charge that Pakistan denies.
An Afghan spokesman said after the attack that it bore the "hallmarks of a particular intelligence agency."
India has close ties with Afghanistan, where it has pledged some $750 million toward reconstruction of the war-ravaged country. Some political analysts think Pakistan is increasingly wary of ceding influence to India.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars since 1945 over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. The nuclear-armed rivals resumed peace talks in 2004.
Narayanan told NDTV that he hoped the peace talks would continue.
Afghanistan and Pakistan continue to quarrel publicly over intelligence and other failures to halt cross-border violence, and have long disputed their border. Afghanistan has never officially recognized the Durand Line, an 19th-century demarcation that Pakistan inherited when it became an independent country through the partition of British colonial India in 1947.
"We have no doubt that the ISI is behind this," M.K. Narayanan told Indian news channel NDTV late on July 12.
"We are in the favor of the peace process, but the ISI is not in any way part of it," he said, according to a transcript of the interview on the NDTV website. "The ISI is playing evil. The ISI needs to be destroyed."
Narayanan told another news channel that India had a "fair amount" of evidence linking the ISI to the July 7 car bomb that killed 41 people, including an Indian defense attache and a diplomat.
Afghan authorities had also hinted that they suspected the ISI, a charge that Pakistan denies.
An Afghan spokesman said after the attack that it bore the "hallmarks of a particular intelligence agency."
India has close ties with Afghanistan, where it has pledged some $750 million toward reconstruction of the war-ravaged country. Some political analysts think Pakistan is increasingly wary of ceding influence to India.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars since 1945 over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. The nuclear-armed rivals resumed peace talks in 2004.
Narayanan told NDTV that he hoped the peace talks would continue.
Afghanistan and Pakistan continue to quarrel publicly over intelligence and other failures to halt cross-border violence, and have long disputed their border. Afghanistan has never officially recognized the Durand Line, an 19th-century demarcation that Pakistan inherited when it became an independent country through the partition of British colonial India in 1947.