KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has for years pushed for reconciliation with the Taliban, now says attempts to negotiate with the militia are futile and efforts at dialogue should focus instead on Pakistan.

The Afghan leader explained in a videotaped speech released by his office on Saturday that he changed his views after a suicide bomber, claiming to be a peace emissary from the militants, killed former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani at his home on Sept 20. Mr Rabbani was leading President Karzai’s effort to broker peace with the Taliban.

“Their messengers are coming and killing. ... So with whom should we make peace?” Mr Karzai said in the recorded address to a gathering on Friday of the nation’s top religious leaders.

“I cannot find Mullah Mohammad Omar,” he said, referring to the Taliban’s supreme leader. “Where is he? I cannot find the Taliban council. Where is it?

“I don’t have any other answer except to say that the other side for this negotiation is Pakistan,” President Karzai said.

It has long been alleged that the Pakistani government has sheltered and influenced the Taliban.

Afghanistan alleged on Saturday that it had evidence that Mr Rabbani’s assassination was planned by Taliban figures living in Quetta.

The Haqqani network has been described by Washington as the top security threat in Afghanistan. The group has been blamed for hundreds of attacks, including a 20-hour siege of the US embassy and Nato headquarters last month.

An Afghan government statement issued last week alleged Pakistan had failed to take steps to eliminate terrorist sanctuaries.

It added that if Pakistan’s intelligence service is using the Taliban against Afghanistan, then the Afghan government needs to have negotiations with Pakistan, “not the Taliban”.

That statement was released after President Karzai met senior government, religious, political and jihadi leaders to discuss the peace effort.

A Nato statement said security forces have conducted more than 500 operations so far this year in an effort to disrupt the Haqqani network leadership, resulting in the deaths of 20 operatives and the capture of nearly 300 leaders and 1,300 suspected Haqqani militants.—AP