An Afghan policeman the Taliban tried to recruit in order to betray his comrades has been decorated for infiltrating their suicide bombing network and laying a trap for their arrest.
Beyar Khan Weyaar was offered a house in Pakistan and $30,000 (£19,000) in cash to smuggle a team of suicide attackers into a government compound in south eastern Afghanistan.
Instead he told his superiors and played along with the plot until the suicide team assembled and could be seized.
Mr Weyaar, who controlled a small checkpoint in Sar Hawza district of Paktika province, was rewarded last week with a medal from Mujtaba Patang, the interior minister.
The case has thrown some light on the tactics the insurgents use to conduct their spectacular suicide assaults against Afghan and Nato forces.
It also came as relief to Afghan security forces, as infiltration by the Taliban, or coercion serving officers, has been responsible for many insider shootings and security lapses.
Mr Weyaar said he was first telephoned by a man who promised he could get rich if he met a local insurgent commander. Soon afterwards, a man called Mohammed came to visit him at his checkpoint.
"He brazenly asked me to take the Taliban side and help them launch an attack inside the police force. I asked him to give me time to think," Mr Weyaar told Agence France Presse.
Under the orders of his Taliban handler, he helped three young Taliban fighters carry out reconnaissance of the government compound they were to attack.
Afghan officials claim that at one point he received direct telephone orders from Sirajuddin Haqqani, a senior commander of the Haqqani network that is at the forefront of suicide attacks in Afghanistan.
All the time he was passing the intelligence to his superiors, said Gen Dawlat Khan Zadran, chief of police in Paktika.
As the date for the attack approached, Mr Weyaar and his Taliban fighters were sent weapons, grenades and suicide vests.
Finally two more attackers arrived, along with a police pick-up truck which was to be laden with explosives and driven by Mohammed.
But as the attackers assembled police officers swooped to arrest them and the team was rounded up without a shot being fired.
Mohibullah Samim, the governor of Paktika, said: "He is a true warrior and he was not worried about his own security. We trusted him, and he proved himself to be a brave patriot."
Source:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/9771761/Afghan-policeman-who-turned-down-Taliban-bribe-is-honoured.html