Massive suicide attack prevented in Kabul: NDS

KABUL): Four rebels, including a Pakistani, were detained and two tonnes of explosives and 250 mines seized separately in Kabul and Nangarhar provinces, an official said on Sunday.

A major attack was prevented in the central capital after a Pakistani citizen and his two Afghan comrades were detained with an explosives-laden truck, NDS media officer Shafiqullah Tahiri told a news conference in Kabul.

The truck was confiscated at the Pul-i-Charkhi check post on Thursday morning, he said, adding the Pakistani wanted to carry out a suicide attack in Kabul.

He identified the detainee as Qadar Nawaz, a resident of Hayatabad locality in Peshawar, the capital of northwestern Pakistan’s province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Nawaz confessed to his intention during preliminary investigations, saying he was encouraged for the attack by two senior Taliban Bashir and Maulvi Musa. He received military trainings in south Waziristan, a lawless tribal region near the Afghan border.

Tahiri said the detainee had been able to cross the explosives-laden truck into Afghanistan through the Torkham border crossing.

Another suicide attacker, Shafiullah alias Nasrat, a resident of Sarobi district, was shot injured and detained by intelligence operatives in Nangarhar on April 15, the NDS official said.

He said the detainee was currently living in a refugee camp in Jalala area near Mardan, the second largest town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The boy was encouraged for a suicide attack by Taj Mohammad alias Faqir, a resident of the camp and organiser of suicide attacks in Afghanistan, Tarhiri quoted Shafiullah as saying.

The attacker had received trainings at a military centre in Bilan Khel area of Tal under Maulvi Naik Mohammad.

Over the past month, 250 anti-personal and anti-vehicle mines, 18 jerry-cans of explosives, 18 missiles were seized by intelligence operatives across the country, Tahiri said.

mm/ma