Afghan spy agency points finger at Pakistan for Kabul hotel bombing

Afghan's first vice president calls deadly attack on Intercontinental hotel ‘security and intelligence failure’

Afghan spy agency, National Directorate Security (NDS) is quick to blame Pakistan for almost every terrorist attack in the country to hide its failure to stem the tide of violence.

While the first vice president of Afghanistan, General Abdul Rashid Dostum, hit out at the security and intelligence agencies of the country, the NDS pointed accusatory finger at Pakistan for Saturday’s deadly attack on Intercontinental Hotel, according to the Afghan media.



Initial investigations show that the explosives used by Taliban insurgents in the attack on the Intercontinental Hotel came from Pakistan, TOLONews quoted NDS as claiming.

The spy agency also claimed that it has recovered the vehicle that the attackers used to enter the hotel compound. “The explosive materials seized in the vehicle show that the material is made in Pakistan,” said the NDS in a press release.

According to the statement passed by NDS, explosive chemical used by the insurgents was produced by a company in Islamabad.

A group of heavily armed insurgents launched a coordinated attack on Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul late on Saturday night, triggering a standoff that lasted for almost 15 hours.



The Ministry of Interior said in a statement on Monday that 18 people, among them 14 foreigners, were killed in the attack and nine others, including security personnel were wounded.

An interior ministry spokesman has confirmed to AFP that the hotel’s security had been taken over by a private company just three weeks earlier. No hotel official was immediately able to comment.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the deadly attack.

General Dostum said the attack once again unveiled the weakness of the security and intelligence organs of Afghanistan to discover and thwart the plans of terror groups, according to Khamaa Press.

“The main issue lies with better management in the security sector,” he said while emphasising that the Afghan government should evaluate the security institutions to resolve issue and prevent such attacks in the future.