September 04, 2008	Thursday	Ramazan 3, 1429

KABUL, Sept 3: Afghan intelligence claimed on Wednesday it had arrested a Pakistan national who said he was paid by his country’s spy agency to help abduct a Japanese aid worker who was later shot dead.

Kazuya Ito, 31, was abducted on August 26 in eastern Nangarhar province, about 50km from the Pakistan border. His body was found a day later.

The arrested man was named as Adil Shah and had been studying at a madressah in the NWFP, the National Directorate for Security said in a statement.

He said he was enlisted by ISI and had been working with three Afghans.

“Adil Shah has confessed during the investigation that the abduction and killing of the Japanese engineer was planned and implemented by Pakistan’s ISI and for that a large amount of money was given to the members of the group,” the statement said.

The Taliban had claimed responsibility for kidnapping Ito, who had been working in Afghanistan for five years.

MILITANTS KILLED: Afghan police killed 32 militants, including several Arab fighters, in clashes overnight in the south of the country, provincial officials said on Wednesday.

Police were on a patrol in a village in Zabul province near the border with Pakistan when they came under attack, Ghulam Jailani, a provincial officer said. Twenty two militants, seven of them Arabs, were killed in the ensuing clash, he said.

“We suffered no casualties despite coming under attack,” Jailani said.

Fighting also erupted in Helmand province, a bastion of the Taliban.

Ten militants were killed.

Poorly equipped and lowly paid, the Afghan police are a frequent target of Taliban attacks and have lost hundreds of men.

—Agencies