Taliban 'has Afghanistan loya jirga security plan'

Screen grab from the Taliban's website which it says is the Afghan government's security plans for the loya jirga The Taliban published what it said was the government's security plans on its website

The Taliban in Afghanistan says it has obtained a government security plan for the grand assembly of leaders, or loya jirga, which opens in Kabul this week.

The document includes what appears to be a detailed list of security arrangements for senior figures.

Afghan security officials have denied that the document is genuine.

Meanwhile, a suicide bomber has been killed while attempting to attack the tented site where the 2,000 members of the loya jirga will meet.

The attacker was shot outside the tent and died after his explosives vest detonated, the BBC was told.

No-one else was killed or injured, officials said.

'False claim'

The 27-page plan published on the Taliban's website includes what appears to be a list of security arrangements for Afghan ministers and the President, Hamid Karzai.

There is a rundown of security officials with their titles and specific responsibilities and what looks like a police map, the BBC's Orla Guerin in Kabul says.

Analysis

Top Afghan officials have said the document is forged and Nato asks why the Taliban would release such a document if it was indeed genuine. But there are unanswered questions.

The document appears to match previous security plans for major events, and some officials believe it may even bear some resemblance to previous drafts of the current security plan for the forthcoming loya jirga.

And the phone numbers published in the document match the phone numbers of top security officials, although these numbers are not difficult to get hold of in Afghanistan.

Moreover, the document has specific details about every Afghan security institution. If it was entirely forged, analysts say, it would have presented an enormous job for Taliban propagandists.

If this does represent some kind of leak, it will highly embarrassing for Afghanistan's security apparatus.

The Taliban said it had acquired the documents "by means of its personnel embedded inside the enemy ranks".

But Afghan officials - including a senior intelligence official talking to the BBC - said this was not the government's plan.

"If this document were real, they would have used it to attack the loya jirga and later leak it out. If it's real why would you publish it?" said Abdul Rahman Rahman, the deputy interior minister responsible for security and police matters.

Nato forces spokesman Lt Col Jimmie Cummings was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that a signature on the document supposedly belonging to Lt Gen Curtis Scaparotti, deputy commander of US forces in Afghanistan, did not resemble his actual signature.

If the security plan was in Taliban hands, it would be a major threat to the more than 2,000 politicians, tribal elders, community leaders, businessmen and civil society representatives due to attend the loya jirga.

The Taliban has threatened to attack the assembly, which starts on Wednesday, branding it a "slave jirga".

There are two items on the agenda for the meeting - reconciliation with insurgents and Afghanistan's future relationship with the United States.

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