KABUL — Afghanistan's intelligence chief, a critic of his government's policies toward neighboring Pakistan, resigned Thursday in an apparent protest against President Ashraf Ghani's trip this week to Islamabad, which has been widely viewed as part of an effort to restart peace talks with the Taliban.
Rahmatullah Nabil, a favorite of US officials, who has served two stints totaling almost five years at the helm of the National Directorate of Security, criticized Ghani's trip to Pakistan in a message posted on his Facebook page Wednesday — the eve of his resignation, just as the president's plane was landing back in Kabul.
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Nabil said the president's trip was disrespectful to Afghans killed in Taliban attacks around the country because Ghani had been holding talks with government leaders in Pakistan, where the Taliban's leadership council is based.
His message made specific mention of the Taliban's nearly 26-hour siege on residential buildings near Kandahar Airfield, in southern Afghanistan, which ended Wednesday and resulted in the deaths of dozens of people.
Referring to the Pakistani leader, Nabil noted that "the moment when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif once again stated that Afghanistan's enemy is Pakistan's enemy — right at that moment our compatriots in the residential areas of Kandahar Airport, Khanishin district of Helmand and Takhar and Badakhshan" were being killed. "Thank God I am not part of it," he added.