Islamabad: Rejecting Islamabad's charge that Indian diplomatic missions in Afghanistan were behind the attack on a mosque in Quetta early this month, visiting Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmed Jalali on July 24 said the incident was the result of sectarian violence in Pakistan.

"It is not true that Indian Embassy and Consulates in Afghanistan had any involvement in the Quetta attack. The incident was the result of sectarian violence in Pakistan. Such incidents take place in Pakistan even when the Indian Embassy and Consulates were closed," Jalali said.

His Pakistani counterpart Faisal Saleh Hayat, who was also present, did not comment on the issue.

Pakistani leaders and media had linked the Indian Consulates in Afghanistan to the July 4 attack on a Shiite mosque in South Western Quetta, which left more than 50 dead.

Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali had said that the attack could be a "fallout" of the Indian Consulates in Kandahar and Herat in Afghanistan and Zahidan in Iran.

Jalali said Afghanistan has also witnessed such incidents by the Taleban and other extremist elements and pointed to the attack on Iranian Consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif, which killed 10 Iranian diplomats and a journalist in 1998.

When asked as to how he can speak on behalf of another country (India), the Afghan minister retorted, "How can other people blame a third country for actions in a sovereign country?"

PTI