London: Pakistani intelligence officials opposed to Islamabad's support to war on terror are equipping Taliban fighters with motorbikes, weapons and satellite phone to carrying out drive-by attacks on American troops and peacekeepers, media reports said.

Despite Islamabad's much-hyped support for the US-led war on terror, the 'Sunday Telegraph' quoting Taliban commanders said that individual officials of the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) are backing the Afghan rebels.

The deal with individual Pakistani intelligence officials was struck at a meeting in a safe house in Kila Abdulla, a small Pakistani town near the Afghan border, the commanders said.

Many members of the ISI are opposed to Pakistan's support for the war on terror. The agency backed the Taliban in the mid-1990s and senior officials are still closely aligned with them.

The Taliban's negotiations with ISI officials are said to be led by Hamid Aghaf and Mullah Qudratullah Jamal, members of the Shura (Council) set up by Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taleban supreme leader, to lead the new Jihad against foreign forces and their local allies.

Mullah Jamal travelled to Pakistan for talks with ISI officials last month, the Taleban commander said, following up the deal to supply 700 motorbikes, rocket-propelled grenades, Kalashnikov rifles, wireless sets, dozens of satellite phones, torches and radios.

PTI