Afghan intel arrests militants who plotted guest house attack

Afghanistan's intelligence agency has arrested a group of Haqqani network militants who plotted terror attack from Pakistan on a popular guest house here last month that killed 14 people, including four Indians.

The arrested militants have confessed that the attack on the Park Palace Guesthouse, frequented by foreigners, was plotted by the Haqqani network commander Qari Abdullah who is based in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's Khyber- Pakhtunkhwa province, Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS) said today.

One of the suspects was identified as Abdul Wakil who was working for an NGO called Madera, the Khaama Press reported, citing the statement.

It added that the other suspect has been identified as Ghulam Aziz who was appointed to carry out a suicide attack.

"NGO worker Abdul Wakil helped Qari Abdullah to plot the attack by preparing a fake USAID ID card for Ghulam Aziz who then visited the Park Palace guest house in Shahr-e-Naw area and prepared a sketch of the guest house for the attack," the statement said.

The attack was finally carried out by another militant identified as Idris who was deployed from Peshawar, it added.

Three gunmen stormed the guest house and started firing on May 13 night. All the attackers were killed in the siege that lasted for about seven hours.

Four Indians, two Pakistanis and an American were among 14 people killed in the attack.
Soon after the attack, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's special envoy for good governance Ahmad Zia Massoud had said the militants attacked the guest house thinking Indian Ambassador Amar Sinha was present in the compound.