Kabul: Several senior Afghan security officials, including Kabul's police chief, have been suspended and were being questioned over an attack last month against President Hamid Karzai, an official said today.

Karzai survived the April 27 attack at a military parade, but three other Afghans were killed, including a parliamentarian. Three attackers were killed in return fire by security forces.

The attack was claimed by Taliban militants who have been waging an insurgency against Karzai's US-backed government.

Attorney General Abdul Jabar Sabet has suspended eight officials and taken over investigation of the attack from a government commission, spokesman Haytuallah Hayat told AFP.

"We have taken over the investigations," Hayat said.

"We have suspended eight senior government officials including the Kabul police chief (Mohammad Salim Ihsas) so they can be questioned," Hayat said.

The suspended officials include senior security officials in the interior, defence and intelligence ministries. They would be questioned over charges of negligence, Hayat said.

They would be tried if found guilty of negligence, otherwise they would return to their duties, he said.

It was one of the most brazen attacks in an insurgency by the Taliban, who were forced out of government in a US-led invasion in late 2001 for harbouring Al-Qaeda which at the time had training camps here.

Source : PTI