ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's intelligence agency has accused the Afghan government of supporting Taliban splinter groups.

In a report presented to Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, the ISI agency alleged President Hamid Karzai’s administration was in league with groups linked to the main Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan movement, known collectively as the TTS.

The report suggested the "recent nexus of TTS with Afghan government is likely to enhance the terrorist activities" in areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border such as Mohman, Bajaur, Dir, Swat and Chitral.

Jason Reed / Reuters

Secretary of State John Kerry, left, listens to Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai during their joint news conference at the presidential palace in Kabul on Thursday.

Anti-Pakistan elements, particularly from across the border in Afghanistan, had provided "strong support" in terms of money, logistics and training and this was “one of the main factors for increased militancy,” the report said.

However, it added that the Taliban’s ability to act "at will and to face security forces openly has been substantially curtailed." 

The report said that internal rifts within the main Pakistani Taliban group had led to the creation of splinter groups.

"TTS, after having been dislodged from area, has resorted to [suicide bomb and improvised explosive device] attacks" on law-enforcement agencies and other officials, the report said.

The court is considering a case involving seven people who are being kept in one of several internment centers in the border area, despite being acquitted by an anti-terrorism court because of lack of evidence against them.

The ISI report was submitted to justify the internment centers and military operations against militants more generally.

The ISI said it was not going to release people held at the internment centers, warning that the detainees included terrorists who could go to cities like Islamabad and Lahore and launch attacks.

It said that 3,871 Pakistani security personnel, more than 3,000 militants and more than 5,000 civilians had been killed in the border area in the last five years.

There had been 235 suicide attacks, 9,257 rocket attacks and 4,256 bombings during the same period, the report added.

Afghanistan and Pakistan have a difficult relationship.

Islamabad has accused Kabul of failing to stop anti-government militants from operating from mountain havens in Afghanistan, while Kabul has blamed Pakistan’s military for cross-border shelling.

In September, Afghanistan’s foreign minister told the United Nations Security Council that diplomatic ties with Pakistan were under threat.

The Afghan foreign ministry declined to comment on the ISI report.

Earlier this month, Karzai claimed that the Taliban was carrying out attacks in Afghanistan "in service of America."

On Monday, after a private meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry in Kabul, Karzai insisted he had not meant to suggest that the United States was colluding with the Taliban, Reuters reported.

"I never used the word 'collusion' between the Taliban and the U.S. Those were not my words. Those were the [words] picked up by the media," he said.

Kerry said the two men had discussed the matter but he played it down, Reuters reported. "I am confident that the president absolutely does not believe that the United States has any interest except to see the Taliban come to the table to make peace."

NBC News' Akbar Shinwari and Reuters contributed to this report.

Slideshow: Pakistan: A nation in turmoil

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People watch "Zero Dark Thirty" outside a computer shop in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the town where Osama bin Laden was found hiding when American special forces killed him in May 2011. The Academy Award-nominated film appears unlikely to be shown on the local big screen anytime soon.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan –“Very Zero, Very Dark” reads one Pakistani film review.

“Zero IQ Thirty” another headline screams.

But just like Osama Bin Laden, the subject of the Oscar contender that recreates the most expensive manhunt in history, "Zero Dark Thirty" is not supposed to be in Pakistan.

The film has not been released, officially. Thus, there is no response, officially, from Pakistani government censors to Kathryn Bigelow's controversial depiction of Pakistan. Therefore, technically, no one in Pakistan is supposed to have ever seen the movie. 

AFP - Getty Images, file

Local actors perform on the set of Kathryn Bigelow's film "Zero Dark Thirty," in Chandigarh, India.

But in reality, "Zero Dark Thirty" is being watched, noticed, slammed and unofficially banned, even while trending on Twitter.

Some of the backlash in the mainstream press here was balanced.

“Though sharp in its production and direction and largely accurate in depicting the events that led to the death of Osama Bin Laden,” wrote respected columnist, Nadeem Farooq Paracha, in Dawn newspaper. “It went ballistic bad in depicting everyday life on the streets of Pakistan.”

Paracha says that the movie may be designed to embarrass Pakistan, its people, its military and even its distinct culture.  Or it might be simply a victim of sloppy research, he mused.

The journalist lists what he believes are the films goofs: The Pakistanis sound like an Indianized Arabic speakers (they are not). They eat hummus (which Pakistanis largely don’t). A character in the movie claims that nobody in Pakistan drives SUVs (people love their SUVs here).

But what triggered more questions about the movie's message and motive here was when the country’s major cinema players decided not to buy the film from international distributors.

“As a local distributor, there was no financial viability for me. The film was already widely available in the [pirated] DVD market,” said Mohsin Yaseen, general manager of Cinepax, the largest multiplex chain in Pakistan . “But as a film buff, the movie was inaccurate about Pakistan. If you’re going to say something about a complicated part of the world, then you should say it right.”

But Nadeem Mandviwalla, chief executive of Mandviwalla Entertainment, who has been buying and distributing Hollywood blockbusters for three decades in Pakistan, played down the hype.

“This whole ‘ban, ban, ban’ bit is a scam. It’s an assumption and just pure hype that’s perfectly timed for Oscar season,” Mandviwalla said. “There is no politics [regarding screening "Zero Dark Thirty"]. There are tons of movies that don’t make it here. It’s not a political decision the army or the ISI [Pakistan's intelligence agency] makes for us. We, as businessmen, make it. And it was bad business modeling to bring this movie to Pakistan.”

Jonathan Olley / Columbia Pictures via AP

Jessica Chastain starred in "Zero Dark Thirty."

But on the ground, reality has matched the fiction featured in the 157-minute thriller.  In Islamabad, the movie was widely available in local DVD stores until mid-January, offered with either the original cover art or a locally designed version featuring bin Laden and current al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri.

Things are different now.

“We were asked to stop selling the movie by some guys a couple of weeks after we started stocking it,” said an attendant at Illusions, a popular movie and music retailer in Islamabad’s upscale Jinnah Super arcade.

“There were four of them. Two stood outside, as if on guard, and two came inside and told us that 'Zero Dark Thirty' was banned,” said the man who asked not to be named because for his own security. “They said they were from Aabpara [the local neighborhood that headquarters the ISI]. They asked us to send the DVDs back to the warehouse, and they took a few discs back for themselves.”

“They were very polite,” he added.

("Zero Dark Thirty" is distributed in some parts of the world by Universal Pictures, which is owned by NBC Universal.)

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This story was originally published on Thu Feb 21, 2013 5:16 AM EST

Muhammed Muheisen / AP

Jaffan Muslim holds a picture of her daughter Arum, 13, who went missing last August, Muslim and others have set up a camp near the parliament in Islamabad, Pakistan, to demand answers. Picture taken Feb. 23, 2012.

The Associated Press reports from Islamabad — Abdul Hameed last saw his son a year ago, being dragged away from their home by Pakistani intelligence operatives along with an Indonesian al-Qaida suspect who had been staying there. The ailing 59-year-old father now has a simple wish.

"I just want to see the face of my son before I die," said Hameed, who has been bedridden for much of the last year with multiple illnesses. "Just that. I have no enmity with anybody, any agency or any government. If you were in my position, what would you do?"

Kashif, who is a student, is among the ranks of Pakistan's "missing" — people seized by security forces for months or years, never to be brought to trial, their families never informed of their fate. Many of the men are presumed to be suspected Islamist militants, swept up in a post-Sept. 11, 2001, crackdown supported by the United States. Some are alleged to have been killed or tortured in custody.

Pakistan's Supreme Court has now given the families a measure of hope by bringing a landmark case against the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, the country's most feared spy network, which is suspected to be behind most of the seizures. The agency, which works closely with the CIA, operates largely outside of the law. Read the full story.

Muhammed Muheisen / AP

A photograph of Gulzar Jaan Ghullzir Jan, 35, who went missing in 2010, is left on a chair inside a tent near the parliament in Islamabad on Feb. 24, 2012.

Muhammed Muheisen / AP

Zuhra Pirzada holds a picture of her husband Fadel, who went missing in 2004, near the parliament in Islamabad on Feb. 23, 2012.

Slideshow: Pakistan: A nation in turmoil

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Images of daily life, political pursuits, religious rites and deadly violence.

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