Afghan prison plot is foiled; new interior minister named

Afghanistan’s intelligence service said Saturday that it had broken up a Taliban plot to attack the country’s most notorious prison with a wave of suicide bombers, while the government named a new interior minister to lead the country’s fledgling police.

The militants planned to attack the Policharki prison on the outskirts of the capital, Kabul, to free Taliban and criminal prisoners, the Afghan intelligence service said.

The attack would have mirrored an assault in June on a prison in Kandahar that freed almost 900 prisoners, including about 400 Taliban fighters.

The Interior Ministry is widely regarded as being the most corrupt government organization in the country. Police officers are known to force civilians to pay bribes to avoid arrest. Higher-ranking officials are believed to help facilitate the country’s opium trade.

The new minister, Mohamad Hanif Atmar, is widely viewed by Western embassies in Kabul as a capable leader. The former interior minister, Zarar Ahmad Moqbel, was named head of the Refugee and Repatriation Ministry.

Three police who worked at Policharki were arrested as accomplices in the Taliban breakout plot, the intelligence service said.