Dubai police blames Afghans for Kandahar atrocity

Taliban representatives to travel to the UAE to deny role in the attack

ISLAMABAD: A senior UAE police official has held the Afghan government responsible for the deadly bombing in Kandahar which on January 10 killed five UAE diplomats and injured its ambassador.

The blast had occurred inside the Kandahar governor’s high-security guest house where the UAE diplomats, including Ambassador Juma Mohammed Abdullah Al Kaabi, gathered for dinner. No group claimed responsibility and the Taliban denied any involvement.



The Kandahar police chief Gen Abdul Raziq blamed the Haqqani Network while the Afghan National Security Adviser Hanif Atmar had claimed that the attack was planned ‘outside’.

However, Dubai Police Deputy Chief Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim disputed the claims by the Afghan security officials and said the Afghan officials are responsible.

“The Afghan security official are directly responsible for the incident to the UAE Ambassador and mission members, who died or were injured, because the explosives were planted inside the guesthouse where people can enter only through security clearance,” General Tamim said on his official Twitter.



“The attack is treason as the blast occurred inside the building. It would have been something else if the attack had been launched from the outside,” he said.

He said aid to Afghanistan should be delivered only through the UN as the foreign aid agencies become the scapegoat of the internal rift among the Afghan officials, who, he said, fight for the foreign aid.

UAE delegation visit

A UAE delegation recently visited Afghanistan to get briefing about the circumstances that led to a serious security lapse and the progress in investigation. An Arab diplomatic source said the UAE officials have “conveyed their serious objections at the failure of the Kandahar security officials including Gen Raziq, to ensure security for the UAE ambassador and diplomats.”



General Raziq had gone out of the guest house just three minutes before the bomb exploded inside the guest house. Sources close to the Taliban say that Taliban representatives from the Qatar office were scheduled to travel to the UAE on Sunday to meet officials and clarify that they had no role in the attack.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2017.