Within hours of Tuesday’s assassination of President Hamid Karzai’s half-brother in Kandahar, Afghanistan’s spy agency said it had foiled a plot by three policemen to kill the interior minister during a planned visit to a police academy in Paktia province.
The policemen and five insurgents were detained ahead of a visit by Interior Minister Bismillah Mohammadi to the academy in eastern Paktia province, said Lutfullah Mashal, spokesman for the National Directorate of Security.
The arrests come as a spate of shootings by “rogue” Afghan police officers or soldiers raises fears that more insurgents will be able to infiltrate the security forces, which are rapidly recruiting ahead of taking full responsibility for the country’s security from foreign forces at the end of 2014.
“The enemies managed to infiltrate inside the police force in Paktia and planned to assassinate the interior minister,” Mashal told a news conference in Kabul. “Suicide vests, explosives and weapons were prepared for the mission.”
The three policemen were stationed at Paktia’s police headquarters and were in contact with Qari Omar, a member of the Haqqani network.
Mashal said the men also provided intelligence to the Taliban about planned operations by security forces. One of the men was in charge of ammunition for police in Paktia and provided hundreds of heavy machine gun rounds to the Taliban, he added.
The use of rogue police and troops, or insurgents in uniforms, has been growing. In May, a suicide bomber killed General Dawood Dawood, the police chief of northern Afghanistan and a former deputy interior minister.
The assaults by uniformed insurgents highlight the pressure US and Nato troops face as they prepare Afghan security forces for a critical security handover, which begins this year and is due to be completed Wali Karzai was shot dead at his home on Tuesday by a senior and highly trusted family security guard.
Outpouring of criticism
The slaying of Karzai’s younger brother by his own security guard triggered an outpouring of criticism in the United States and India. The White House condemned the assasination in “the strongest possible terms”.
Spokesman Jay Carney said the US administration also sent its condolences to the family of Ahmed Wali Karzai.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh voiced shock at the assassination of Ahmed Wali Karzai, saying the nation had lost as prominent public figure. In a letter to Hamid Karzai, Singh expressed “deep sorrow and shock at the sad news of the tragic assassination.”
“In this difficult hour, our thoughts and prayers are with you, your family and the people of Afghanistan,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 13th, 2011.
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