KABUL, Afghanistan -- After courting Pakistan for more than a year, President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan changed course Monday and warned that he would lodge a complaint with the United Nations Security Council if Pakistan refuses to take military action against Taliban leaders operating from its soil to wage an increasingly deadly insurgency across Afghanistan.
Ghani has taken pains to persuade Pakistan's leadership, particularly its military, to bring the insurgent leaders to the negotiating table. But an increase in Taliban violence, including an attack last week in the heart of the Afghan capital, Kabul, that left at least 64 people dead and more than 300 wounded, has forced Ghani to effectively end what has been a cornerstone effort of his presidency.
"I want to make it clear that we do not expect Pakistan to bring the Taliban to talks," Ghani said Monday in a rare joint session of the two houses of the Afghan parliament.
He said that in quadrilateral talks over the past year that also involved the United States and China, Pakistan had pledged "in writing" to go after Taliban leaders who refuse to join the peace process.
"We want the Pakistanis to fulfill their promises in the quadrilateral and take military action against those who have their centers in Pakistan and whose leaders are in Pakistan based on our security organizations, the intelligence of our international partners, and the words of Pakistan officials," Ghani said. "If we do not see a change, despite our hopes and efforts for regional cooperation, we will be forced to turn to the U.N. Security Council and launch serious diplomatic efforts."
Despite repeated promises from Pakistan to bring Taliban leaders to talks, the peace efforts seem to have gone nowhere, with the insurgency using the window to consolidate after infighting and to launch another spring offensive promising to be bloodier than in years past. Unlike previous years, the violence did not subside even in the harsh winter months.
In his address Monday, Ghani called the insurgents terrorists who "take pleasure in the torn-up bodies of our innocents," and their leaders "slavelike" and involved in narcotics mafias.
But the Taliban were quick to respond; their spokesmen posted on Twitter live during Ghani's address.
"The nation is not blind -- it realizes who is a slave, and who is a hireling," said Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, posting a picture of senior government officials listening to the former commander of NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Gen. John Campbell. "We will continue fighting until the occupation is ended."
Also on Monday, Pakistani police said an al-Qaida financier who has been on a U.N. sanctions list since 2012 had been arrested.
Abdur Rehman Sindhi was detained during a raid by intelligence agencies in the southern port city of Karachi last week, said police officer Muqaddas Haider. He said a joint team of police and intelligence agents was questioning the suspect on what role he might have played in militant attacks in Pakistan in recent years.
Sindhi appeared before a court which allowed the police to interrogate him for two weeks, the police official said. He said he didn't have any evidence so far that the suspect was linked to the U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl's 2002 killing.
Much of al-Qaida's senior leadership fled to Pakistan following the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of neighboring Afghanistan.
Also Monday, police said a Sikh lawmaker gunned down last week was killed by a political rival from the minority group, who was arrested along with five other suspects.
The Pakistani Taliban had claimed responsibility for the killing of Sardar Suran Singh, who was gunned down while heading home Friday night in northwestern Pakistan. Singh had served as a provincial adviser for minority affairs.
But police said the killing was ordered by Baldev Kumar, a rival Sikh politician, who paid assassins around $10,000 to carry out the shooting.
Azad Khan, police chief in the district where the killing took place, announced the arrests on Monday and paraded the suspects, including Kumar, before reporters -- who were not allowed to interview the detainees.
Information for this article was contributed by Mujib Mashal of The New York Times; and by Zarar Khan, Asif Shahzad and Riaz Khan of The Associated Press.
A Section on 04/26/2016