News - Afghanistan

Three men were detained Monday as suspects in the planning of an attack on a government gathering in western Herat, local officials said Monday.

Two of the men were while wearing women's clothing and armed with non-lethal weapons while they were trying to attack the guards protecting the government officials at a gathering in Herat's Local Governance Department compound, Herat's acting police chief Abdul Hamid Hamidi said.

Another person was riding a motorcycle carrying the women-clothed attackers.

"Two people named Farid and Sayed Omid were riding a motorbike driven by Abdul Ghafoor and were trying to enter the Hall equipped with non-lethal weapons and anesthesia materials," Hamidi said.

However, some officials believe that the women-clothed detainees were trying to deceive teenagers and there was no real proof that they intended to attack the government gathering.

This comes on the same day that a motorbike bomb blast near a border police check point in Herat's Islam Qala district injured three people including a doctor and an Iranian official.