Nangarhar police said on Tuesday that two Pakistani citizens were arrested on charges of providing suicide vests to insurgents in the province.

Nangarhar Police Chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi said the two Pakistanis and dozens of others were arrested in connection with criminal and terrorist activities in the past month in different parts of the province especially in Jalalabad city.

This comes after a number of residents raised concerns over the increase in criminal and terrorist activities in the province.

“Two Pakistani citizens who were preparing suicide vests were arrested with suicide vests and dozens of other suspects who wanted to conduct terrorist activities in different parts of the province were arrested before they were able to reach their targets. They are now under investigation,” said Rahimi.

Meanwhile, the two Pakistanis who were arrested said that they had been deceived and were not supposed to conduct suicide attacks.

“I am a resident of Peshawar from Pakistan and got training in Pakistan and they told me to go to Afghanistan because Americans are there and we came to Afghanistan and when the police stopped us and asked us then I told them the whole story that someone had deceived me and brought me to Afghanistan and now that guy is has gone underground but we did not come here for suicide attacks,” said Abdul Rahman one of the suspects.

“A person name Osman told me that we will go to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan because Americans are there. We came to Afghanistan and in Afghanistan we were stopped by the police and we told the police that we have been deceived by Osman,” said Ahmad another Pakistani suspect.

Meanwhile in a separate incident, two people died in a fire early Tuesday in Jalalabad city. Three others were injured.

Local officials said that the fire broke out in the Behsood district of Nangarhar province when a magnetic mine was placed in a fuel tanker. Forty shops in the area caught fire.

“Early today around 06:30 am a fuel tanker in Behsood district belonging to a private company caught fire when a magnetic mine went off and as a result 40 shops in the area caught fire and two people were killed and three others were injured,” said Khoyani.

Two of them are in critical condition, Khoyani added.