5 policemen detained over attack on Afghan police centre

The Afghan police arrested five officers in connection with the recent Taliban attack on a police centre in Paktia province in eastern Afghanistan, an official told EFE on Wednesday.

In the attack Tuesday, 53 people were killed and 158 others were injured.

"Four members of the Afghan National Police (ANP) and one member of the Afghan National Civil Order Police (ANCOP), who were on duty in first main entrance of the Police Headquarters during yesterday's attack have been arrested and are under investigation," Abdullah Hasrat, the spokesperson for Paktia province governor, told EFE.

According to Hasrat, the detainees allowed the entry of an armed vehicle loaded with explosives and a police car carrying insurgents, without offering any resistance.

The five officers held are being investigated over suspected ties with the insurgents and negligence, and the question arises how the attackers managed to pass through the first gate and enter the premises without coming across resistance, according to Hasrat.

The attack had began around 9.30 am at the police barrack in Gardez, the capital of Paktia, where Afghan security forces have their main headquarters for the provinces of Paktia, Paktika, Khost and Logar.

This was one of the three attacks that took place on Tuesday in different parts of eastern Afghanistan, leaving behind a total toll of 74 dead and 168 wounded.

The Afghan government has been losing ground to the Taliban since the end of the NATO military mission in January 2015, and it currently controls only 57 per cent of the country, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) of the US Congress.

--IANS

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