(Telegraph) — Pakistan is still running training camps to support and arm the Taliban across the border in Afghanistan despite official denials, insurgents have claimed.

Middle-ranking Taliban commanders have boasted that they have received “practical guidance” and training in bomb-making by officers from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI).

One commander, Mullah Azizullah, told a BBC documentary: “They are all the ISI’s men. They are the ones who run the training.

“First they train us about bombs, then they give us practical guidance.

Their generals are everywhere. They are present during the training.”

In an interview at a safe-house in Kabul in June, he added: “The Taliban movement was created with the help of the ISI. It is like when a tree grows — one has to plant it and water it.”

The claims come amid heightened tensions between Pakistan and the US following an attack by insurgents on the US embassy in Kabul last month, conducted by a group that Adml Mike Mullen, then the chairman of the US joint chief of staff, claimed was directed by the ISI.

Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, visited Pakistan last week and urged the head of the ISI and the military to take action against militants operating from their soil, including the group behind the embassy attack, the Haqqani network.