Attack on Afghan spy chief planned in Pakistan: Karzai

Islamabad asks Kabul for evidence before levelling charges.

KABUL:

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said a suicide attack that wounded the country’s spy chief was planned in Pakistan, while claims of responsibility over the attack continued to be shrouded in mystery.

Karzai’s allegations did not sit well with the foreign ministry, which immediately issued a statement asking the Afghan government to share information or evidence with the government of Pakistan before levelling charges.

“They would also do well by ordering an investigation into any lapses in the security arrangements around the NDS chief,” the Foreign Office statement said, adding that the government of Pakistan is ready to assist any investigation of this criminal act.

Whodunnit?

Conflicting claims of responsibility emerged for the attack on the Afghan spy chief as a breakaway faction of the Taliban also claimed responsibility for the assassination attempt. Earlier, the Taliban said they had planned the attack carried out by an attacker posing as a Taliban peace envoy with a bomb hidden in his underwear.

“The Afghan intelligence chief had been our main target for four years,” said Rehbar Mal, a purported spokesman for the ‘Dadullah Mahaz’ or’ Dadullah Front’ in a statement sent to The Express Tribune.

The spokesperson said the attack was revenge for the killing of Mulla Dadullah Akhund, who was slain by Afghan and western forces in May 2007 in Afghanistan’s Helmand province.

Karzai to raise issue with Pakistan

The Afghan president, who did not openly blame Pakistan over the attack on Asadullah Khaled in Kabul, said the Taliban would not have been able to carry out the bombing and that “bigger hands were involved”.

“We know that this man who came in the name of a guest to meet with Asadullah Khaled came from Pakistan. We know that for a fact. That is clear,” Karzai told reporters.

“This attack was plotted... from Quetta in Pakistan. I will raise this issue with Pakistan.”

“It was an absolutely professional and engineered attack – bigger hands were involved,” he said.

Karzai said the issue would be discussed next week with Pakistani officials during a meeting between the foreign ministers of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey in Ankara.

Meanwhile, Khaled is now being treated at a US-run military hospital at Bagram airbase outside Kabul where he is in a stable condition, security sources have said. (WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY TAHIR KHAN IN ISLAMABAD)

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9^th, 2012.