[DAWN] Afghanistan on Sunday accused "foreign intelligence services" of being behind an attack targeting presidential front-runner Abdullah Abdullah... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun...
that killed 12 people, in a veiled reference to Pakistain.
Abdullah survived the liquidation attempt on Friday when two blasts, including a suicide kaboom, hit his campaign motorcade in Kabul ahead of next weekend's hotly contested run-off election.
"Initial investigations indicate foreign intelligence services were involved in this incident through Lashkar-e-Taiba
...the
Army of the Pure,an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is
banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI...
in an organised manner, and the turbans were aiming to disrupt the election in Afghanistan, "Afghanistan's National Security Council, which is chaired by President Hamid
Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai
... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a
Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
, said in a statement.
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is a Pakistain-based myrmidon group.
Pakistain was the main supporter of the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan, and Afghan officials have long voiced suspicions about connections between the hardline movement and Islamabad's powerful intelligence services.
Sunday's accusation comes after Afghanistan said last week that it was pulling out of security talks in Islamabad in anger at cross-border attacks blamed on the Mighty Pak Army, which it said were designed to disrupt the second round of its presidential election.
The NSC "condemned" increasing numbers of "rocket attacks (by the) Pak military against the country", which it said were aimed at disrupting the run-off ballot due to be held on June 14.
The attempt to assassinate Abdullah triggered strong international condemnation, including from the United States and the UN Security Council.
Afghanistan is in the middle of elections to choose a successor to Karzai, who has ruled since the fall of the 1996-2001 Taliban regime.
Abdullah fell short of the 50 per cent threshold needed for an outright victory in the April first round and will face former World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani in the run-off.
The NSC statement said Friday's attack on Abdullah was "the worst incident during election campaign".