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Pakistan is not behind the suicide car-bombing that targeted the Indian embassy in Kabul on Monday, killing 41 people, including two senior Indian diplomats, Yousaf Raza Gillani, the country's prime minister, has said.
The Afghan interior ministry said it thought the blast was carried out "with co-ordination and advice from regional intelligence circles".
Speaking to Reuters news agency on the sidelines of an Islamic summit in Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur, on Tuesday, Gillani rejected the claim.
"We need a stable Afghanistan," he said.
"Certainly, why should Pakistan destabilise Afghanistan? It is in our interest, a stable Afghanistan. We want stability in the region."
Up to 141 people were wounded in addition to the deaths in the embassy bombing, according to government officials.
The blast, which was felt across much of Kabul, took place near a row of metal turnstiles outside the embassy, where dozens of Afghan men line up every morning to apply for visas.
The explosion damaged two embassy vehicles entering the compound during the morning rush hour.
Indian casualties
Pranab Mukherjee, the Indian foreign minister, announced in New Delhi on Monday that an Indian military attache and a diplomat were among those killed.
He named them as Brigadier R Mehta and V Venkat Rao.
Mukherjee said two Indian security guards and an Afghan national who worked at the embassy were also killed.
"Such acts of terror will not deter us from fulfilling our commitments to the government and people of Afghanistan," he said.
Rangeen Dadfar Spanta, the Afghan foreign minister, visited the embassy soon after the attack to show support, Sultan Ahmad Baheen, his spokesman, said.
"The enemies of Afghanistan and India's relationship cannot hamper our relationship by conducting such attacks," Baheen said.
India has provided significant support to Afghanistan's efforts to restore order after the removal of the Taliban, which seized power in 1996 until they were pushed out.
Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani author and expert on the Taliban, told Al Jazeera that the Afghan government is implicitly linking Pakistan to the attack.
"Pakistan, like many previous attacks, is blamed," he said.
"This is a worsening regional situation, particularly now that foreign embassies, like India, which has no troops in Afghanistan, are also being targeted."
Deadliest attack
James Bays, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Afghanistan, called Monday's bombing the deadliest attack in Kabul for many months.
He said the road in the centre of Kabul, where the interior ministry is situated, should be one of the most secure roads in the city. However, a suicide bomber was able to drive a four-wheel drive vehicle packed with explosives towards the gate of the embassy where he detonated his load.
The Taliban has carried out a wave of suicide attacks across the country in the past seven years, but said it did not carry out the embassy attack.
"We have not done it," said Zabihullah Mujahed, a spokesman.
Retired Major-General Dipankar Banerjee, director of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, told Al Jazeera that the Taliban may not be responsible for the attack.
"This terrorist attack is the work of those that are highly specialised ... but I am not entirely sure if the blame can be pointed towards the Taliban because the majority of those killed were Afghan civilians," he said.
"Also, India has no troops stationed in the country, but over 3,000 personnel involved in development projects. Perhaps this is the work of those that are not happy between this partnership between India and Afghanistan."
PHOTO CAPTION
An Afghan police keeps watch at the main entrance to the Indian embassy in Kabul July 8, 2008. (REUTERS)
Al-Jazeera
