ISLAMABAD - Pakistan interior minister said that Pakistani government has prevented Haqqani Network from operating on its soil and the group was based in Afghanistan. Rehman Malik, Pakistan's Interior Minister, remarks come days after a series of militant strikes in capital Kabul and three other provinces across Afghanistan on Sunday.

After clashes ended between militants and security forces, 36 attackers and 11 security forces, as well as four civilians, were killed. Forty security personnel and 25 civilians were wounded in the 18-hour fighting.

The Afghan government and its western allies blamed the Haqqani Network for the attacks. In an interview with a television channel Wednesday evening, Malik said that all militant activities carried out in Pakistan were planned in Afghanistan.

"The militants always go back to Afghanistan after guerrilla attacks and it is responsibility of NATO-led soldiers based in Afghanistan to prevent them," he said. In response to a query he said, the Haqqani network was not in Pakistan, instead based in Afghanistan.

In Afghanistan the financial sources for militants are narcotics that had good international market, he said.

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Monday said intelligence inputs showed that Haqqani Network was responsible for the coordinated multiple strikes in Afghanistan.

"The intelligence indicates that Haqqanis were behind the attacks that took place. And we had received a great deal of intelligence indicating that Haqqanis were planning these kinds of attacks," Panetta told a news conference. (Pajhwok)