In this Jan. 26, 2010 photo Afghan National Police officers are seen preparing to work with Canadian soldiers from Task Force 3-09 Battle Group during operation Tazi, a village search and security operation in the Dand area of Kandahar Province, southern Afghanistan
KABUL: Nato-led invading forces arrested a deputy provincial police chief they accused of helping place roadside bombs north of Kabul, officials said, in the latest sign of concerns about weaknesses in Afghan security forces.
Provincial officials said on Sunday that the man was an honest and good officer.
The Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, wasn’t informed about the arrest in advance and is contacting Nato to learn what happened, according to ministry spokesman Zamary Bashary.
Attaullah Wahab, the deputy police chief and security director in the Kapisa province, was detained along with a bodyguard in a raid backed by helicopters while he was home in the provincial capital of Mahmud-i-Raqi, according to a spokesman for the provincial government, Halim Ayar.
Nato did not identify the suspect but said joint Afghan-coalition forces arrested an Afghan national police commander on Friday for illegal activity and corruption in Kapisa and the Bagram district — the site of the main US military hub — in the neighbouring Parwan province.
He was accused of involvement in the storage, distribution and installation of bombs on roads surrounding Mahmud-i-Raqi as well as corruption related to road reconstruction.
“He has been clearly linked to criminal activities, including a murder during the summer of 2009,” a Nato statement said of the detained police official.
Combating the threat of roadside bombs has taken on new urgency as 37,000 new US and Nato troops arriving means more targets. Improvised explosives are the biggest single killer of international and Afghan forces, and they also kill hundreds of civilians.
On Sunday, a bomb detonated by remote control struck an Afghan patrol near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, killing three policemen, according to local police officer Mohammad Razaq. Read more…
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