Kabul, May 5 : Afghanistan’s Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak has announced that a police captain and an army officer were connected to the assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai last week.

He said that both men have been arrested and are under investigation for their suspected role in the attack during a military parade, which killed three people, including a Member of Parliament, and wounded 11.

The police captain was identified as Zalmai and is a trained nurse, while the army officer Jawed aka Taleb Shah worked in the military’s weapons maintenance department, repairing weapons and refurbishing ones surrendered under the national disarmament program.

One of the suspects may have been a sympathizer, and the other was probably motivated by money, the New York Times quoted Wardak, as saying.

Western military officials here have said the assassination attempt, coming after the coordinated attack on the Serena Hotel, indicates a growing ambition and sophistication on the part of those planning and carrying out such attacks.

Afghan forces caught a mortar team on the morning of the parade and uncovered a number of suicide vests in the days before the attack, all signs that the plan was for multiple coordinated attacks that could have been far more deadly.

Wardak said security officials needed to keep investigating how and when the group of three gunmen who fired on the military parade managed to bring weapons into their hotel room.

He also said that there was a need to question members of the presidential guard who were responsible for the security of the area for the 24 hours before the parade. (ANI)