Afghanistan downplays Karzai threat

The NDS had earlier said six people were under arrest over an alleged plot to kill Karzai hatched in Pakistan.

KABUL: Afghanistan on Saturday downplayed the risk to President Hamid Karzai after officials foiled an alleged assassination plot, denying that a bodyguard under arrest ever had free access to the palace.

The intelligence service announced this week that one of Karzai's personal bodyguards and two university lectures were among six people under arrest over an alleged al Qaeda plot to kill Karzai hatched in Pakistan.

The reports appeared to underline the president's vulnerability after losing a series of key allies, including peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani, assassinated last month, and his younger brother who was murdered in July.

But the presidency said the guard, Muhibullah Ahmadi, was assigned only to the "outside gates of the presidential palace" where he was not authorised to act independently and was not allowed to enter the presidential compound.

The National Directorate of Security (NDS) said the six were recruited to al Qaeda by a religious teacher at Kabul Medical University.

It claimed they were "very close" to launching their attack, having found a way inside the palace and recruiting one of president's bodyguards.

The NDS said the bodyguard, Ahmadi, came from Karzai's village, Karz in the southern province of Kandahar.

The president survived an assassination attempt in 2008 at a military parade and now rarely leaves the heavily fortified presidential palace.

Karzai was in India when the alleged plot was revealed, where he signed a new strategic partnership deal that raised concerns within Pakistan about being increasingly isolated in Afghanistan.

The NDS says Rabbani was killed by a Pakistani and that his murder was also planned in Pakistan.