Kabul, Oct 5: Six people have been arrested after an alleged Al-Qaeda plot to assassinate Afghan President Hamid Karzai involving one of his bodyguards was foiled, officials said today.
Those detained, who also included a university lecturer and students, were found with suicide vests and had been to North Waziristan in Pakistan's tribal belt for training, officials said.
They did not reveal how far advanced the plot was but the men were arrested a week ago and were said to have carried out training for the attack last month.
The news highlights Karzai's fragile position following a string of recent assassinations of his key allies including peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani last month.
Officials do not believe the plot was linked to the Taliban, leaders of an insurgency targeting Karzai's government and 140,000 foreign troops stationed in Afghanistan.
“A week ago, the National Directorate of Security arrested six people in connection with a plot to assassinate President Karzai,” said Lutfullah Mashal, a spokesman for the NDS, Afghanistan's intelligence service.
“These six people were introduced and recruited to Al-Qaeda by Sayed Aqa, a religious teacher at Kabul Medical University.”
The news was confirmed by the Afghan interior ministry's spokesman Siddiq Siddiqui.
Mashal said the Karzai bodyguard implicated in the attack, Muhibullah Ahmadi, came from the same village as Karzai, Karz in the southern province of Kandahar. AFP
