By Faisal Aziz
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Pakistan is not behind the suicidecar-bombing that ripped through the Indian embassy in Kabul,killing 41 people and wounding 139, the country's primeminister said on Tuesday.
Afghan authorities had suggested that Monday's attack wascoordinated with foreign agents in the region, a likelyreference to Pakistan.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani said that wasnot true.
"We need a stable Afghanistan," he said on the sidelines ofan Islamic summit in Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur.
"Certainly, why should Pakistan destabilise Afghanistan? Itis in our interest, a stable Afghanistan. We want stability inthe region," he told reporters, adding that Pakistan itself wasa victim of terrorism.
Over the weekend, a suicide bomb attack in Pakistanicapital Islamabad killed 18 people and wounded nearly 50. Theattack was on Pakistani police guarding Islamists marking theanniversary of an army commando raid on Islamabad's Red Mosque.
On Monday, six small bombs went off on streets in thesouthern city of Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city and itscommercial capital, wounding at least 23 people.
Gillani said authorities were investigating who was behindthe attacks.
"Those who want to destabilise peace in the region, theyare the people. And because strategically Pakistan is at anextremely important place, and we are fighting on theforefronts. We are just on the border of Afghanistan, thereforea lot of pressure is on us," he said.
He said the attacks could be a fallout of Pakistan's recentcrackdown against militants in the North West FrontierProvince.
The attacks in Pakistan are likely to raise questions aboutthe new government's security policy and will increase concernabout prospects for the country, a nuclear-armed U.S. allymaking a transition to civilian rule.
(Additional reporting by Jalil Hamid; Editing by ValerieLee)
