Search the Internet          Tips

Plan to kill Karzai, Fahim foiled

The militant, Bokan Akram Khorani, had 18 pounds of explosives taped under his vest, Amrullah Salihi, spokesman for the Afghan National Directorate of Security, said.

Khorani was trained in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, which, the paper noted, 'has long been a training base for terrorist groups fighting in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan'. He has ties with Pakistani extremist groups and three senior Taliban leaders, now believed to be hiding in Pakistan.

Khorani had been sent to assassinate Karzai on his return from the United States last week, but reached too late to ambush the president. He then switched to the plan to kill Fahim.

Volunteering numerous details about himself and his suicide mission, Khorani said it would be an honour to succeed in the operation.

He had been 'casing' the neighbourhood where Fahim lives. But the police had been watching Khorani ever since he arrived in Kabul from Pakistan a few days ago, The Washington Post observed.

Afghan officials recently warned that fugitive Taliban officials, working with Pakistani intelligence agencies, may join forces with violent Islamic groups hostile to the Karzai government and its American backers.

Both Karzai and Fahim have been targets for attacks before. In September, a gunman opened fire on the president's car in Kandahar. On the same day a powerful car bomb exploded in Kabul. In April, rockets attacked a convoy carrying Fahim in Jalalabad.

Salihi said the foiled plot, along with the arrest of an Uzbek man in Kabul along with a car full of explosives three months ago, clearly demonstrated that the fight against terrorism is not over.

The Washington Post noted that Karzai and Fahim are the two most important officials in the Afghan government and the assassination of either can destabilize the country.

Tell us what you think of this report