KABUL – The head of Afghanistan’s intelligence service has resigned and described President Hamid Karzai’s plans for negotiations with insurgents as a “disgrace”.
Amrullah Saleh – for six years a key figure in the anti-Taliban fight as head of the National Directorate for Security – said Mr Karzai had already lost faith in his security forces before an attack on a peace conference last week.
Mr Saleh resigned on Monday along with Hanif Atmar, who controlled the police as interior minister. Mr Karzais office said the two top security officials had quit because of lapses that led to an insurgent attack on last weeks peace meeting.
In an interview at his home in the Afghan capital, Mr Saleh described plans to negotiate with insurgents as a “disgrace”, and said one of the main reasons he had quit was because Mr Karzai had ordered a review of Taliban prisoners in detention. He denied being forced out, saying he had contemplated quitting for a long time. Last week’s attack on the peace “jirga” or tribal council meeting, was just the last straw.
“A number of reasons had accumulated and it needed a tipping point and the jirga was the tipping point,” he said. He also spoke out strongly about what he called Pakistani involvement in attacks in Afghanistan, describing Pakistani intelligence as “part of the landscape of destruction”.
Insurgents fired at least four rockets at a giant tent holding the traditional jirga of 1,600 Afghan notables and elders last Wednesday, and then launched a commando raid involving three insurgents wearing suicide vests.
While there were no casualties apart from the attackers – two were shot dead and one captured – the incident was embarrassing for Mr Karzai, who had called the jirga to discuss his proposals to make peace overtures to the Taliban.
Mr Karzai summoned Mr Saleh and Mr Atmar to his palace in Kabul on Sunday to explain how the attack was able to take place despite a massive security blanket thrown over the capital. His office said both men had resigned on the spot when the president had not been satisfied with their accounts.
Mr Saleh said that during the palace meeting Mr Karzai tried to get him to pin blame for the lapse onto Mr Atmar and the police.
“Our intent was to make the jirga peaceful. There was a breach and I don’t want to blame my police comrades for the breach,” he said. “So when there was an effort to have me put the blame on the police, I said no.”
“The president of Afghanistan has lost trust in the capability of Afghan national security forces. He thinks these forces are not able to protect him or the country,” he added.
Mr Saleh is well liked by the West and was seen as a close ally of Mr Karzai. Nevertheless, as an ethnic Tajik and prominent member of the guerrilla movement which fought the Taliban during the 1990s, he was seen as an obstruction to Mr Karzai’s plans to negotiate with the mainly ethnic-Pashtun insurgents.
Mr Karzai has ordered a review of all insurgent prisoners in Afghan jails, a move Mr Saleh said was a main reason for him quitting. Asked if he agreed that he had become an obstacle to Mr Karzai’s plan, Mr Saleh said: “Absolutely”.
“Negotiating with . . . suicide bombers will disgrace this country,” he added. He denied he was forced to resign, however.
During his tenure as intelligence chief, Mr Saleh was known to accuse Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency of attacks on Afghan soil, a claim he made explicit on Monday.
Mr Saleh said the Punjab-based Lashkar-e Taiba militant group responsible for the attacks in Mumbai, had also been behind several attacks on Indian targets in Kabul. – (Reuters)