Insurgents “bought” suicide bomber – Afghan spy agency

KABUL,  (Reuters) – Afghanistan’s intelligence agency  said yesterday that a senior commander from the Pakistani  Taliban sold a suicide bomber to an Afghan militant network, to  carry out an attack on a local commander in eastern Afghanistan.

Relations between the neighbours are already strained by  weeks of cross-border shelling of Afghanistan’s east. Pakistan  denies more than “a few accidental” rounds have landed in  Afghanistan; Kabul says hundreds have hit.

The National Directorate of Security (NDS), Afghanistan’s  intelligence agency, said the bomber was a Pakistani national  and was detained by NDS agents in Jaji Maidan district of  eastern Paktia province before he could carry out his mission.

Sher Hassan was sent by the Haqqani network, considered one  of the most dangerous insurgent groups fighting in Afghanistan,  but had not signed up to join them, the NDS said in a statement.

Instead he said he was bought by the group to target  “Azizullah”, a commander whose affiliation and rank were not  given by the NDS. Hassan then spent a month after his sale  training with the Haqqani network.

“The detained man added that a commander under Hakimullah  Mehsud sells suicide bombers at 6,000,000 to 8,000,000 Pakistani  rupees ($70,000 to $93,000), to the Haqqani network for suicide  missions,” the statement said.