ISI officer involved in Kabul parliament attack, claims Afghan intelligence

Afghanistan’s intelligence service on Wednesday said that a Pakistani intelligence officer helped the Taliban carry out an attack on parliament earlier this week.

Afghan intelligence services spokesman Hassib Sediqqi said Wednesday that the officer in Inter-Services Intelligence helped the Haqqani network carry out the attack outside parliament in Kabul, which killed two people and wounded more than 30 as lawmakers were meeting inside.

Sediqqi said the suicide car bomb used in Monday’s attack was manufactured in Peshawar, adding that Afghan authorities were made aware of the attack on June 10 and had deployed extra security.

Afghan-Pakistani relations had improved in recent months following years of mistrust, during which each country accused the other of supporting militants operating along their porous border.

Almost a month ago, ISI and the Afghan intelligence agency— National Directorate of Security (NDS)— signed a landmark deal aimed at bolstering the fight against terrorism.

Under the agreement, the two intelligence agencies would cooperate in counter-terrorism operations. An essential element of the accord was a provision for joint probe of terrorism suspects. The ISI would also equip the NDS and train its personnel.

At that time, a Pakistan government official had said that the signing of the agreement represented the new-found trust between Islamabad and Kabul, particularly between their security and intelligence establishments.

There was no comment yet from Pakistani officials over the Afghan allegations.