Hamid Karzai

"LandepNews"

Hamid Karzai

As India and Afghanistan signed two agreements, a thwarted assassination plot against the president Hamid Karzai, organized by a Pakistan-based group, was announced on Wednesday. Lutfullah Mashal, spokesman for the Afghanistan’s National Directorate for Security, said that six people were arrested, including one of the president’s bodyguards. The criminal ring included several university students and professors.
One of the masterminds was an Arab national who traveled to Pakistan. Besides the plan to kill Karzai, the group also meant to stage attacks on Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, and in Europe and the United States.
The Afghan security said that the six detainees have confessed their plans. They were described as affiliated to al-Qaeda. Their activity is expected to worsen even more the relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan, after they deteriorated as a result of the assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani.
The assassination of Rabbani, former president of Afghanistan, who was acting as a peace envoy of the incumbent president to the Taliban, with whom the Afghan regime wants to make peace, was blamed on a Pakistani national.
Karzai went as far as to accuse Pakistan of attempting to foil negotiations between Afghan government and the Taliban. He fell short of accusing directly the Pakistani government of being behind the assassination of Rabbani.
Several attempts to kill Karzai were made since he became president in 2002. The latest assassination attempt comes after a high-profile killings that happened in Afghanistan this year.
Karzai’s half brother was killed during the summer, then the former mayor of Kandahar was killed, and then an advisor to the president himself.
United States and Afghanistan came to accuse the Haqqani network of activating on the Afghan soil in connection to the Pakistani foreign intelligence service, especially after the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, staged in September.
The Americans have accused the Haqqani network and the Pakistani intelligence of this attack, and demanded that Islamabad allowed them to deal with the Haqqani network.
In spite of this tension, Afghan president wanted to reassure Pakistan that the visit to India was not going to change the good relations with Pakistani government. “Pakistan is our twin brother, and India is a great friend,” he said.
By the agreements signed on Tuesday, India promised to help Afghanistan after the American drawdown in 2014. The Afghan president felt like reassuring Pakistan of the good intentions toward it because Pakistan considers Afghanistan as its own zone of influence.
India and Afghanistan have signed a pact by which India would help train security forces in order to make sure that Afghanistan becomes a secure country. The terrorist activity in Afghanistan, the Indian PM said in the joint press conference, placed at risk the entire South Asia.

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