Kabul: Intercepted phone calls show the Taliban and a Pakistan-based outfit planning the June 28 suicide bomb attack on a popular hotel in Afghanistan. Afghan security officials have released a recording of intercepted phone calls between a Pakistan-based group and Taliban fighters planning an attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, in which twenty-one people were eventually killed. The intercepted call took place between a Pakistani phone number and a local Afghan number, Al Jazeera reports.

The person from Pakistan - Qari Younis - is heard talking to Rohullah, one of the militants holed up in the Kabul hotel.

Rohullah asks Younis: “What should we do? Should we go and break the doors down?” “No, no, no. Talk to each other. Those who have been given orders should go down and fight. Some should stay on the upper floor. And don’t waste your bullets. Use grenades and talk with each other,” Younis instructed. “If you are in agreement, go and break down one or two doors. Or, if possible, use a grenade into the room and then pull back. Or shoot out the door locks with a Kalashnikov. Whatever you do, make sure these guys don’t get away, OK,” he added.

According to the Afghan intelligence, the Taliban-backed Haqqani network was behind the attack.

In another intercepted phone call, the Pakistan-based terror network’s leader Badruddin Haqqani is heard talking to another attacker - Omar - as the top floor of the hotel burns. Haqqani asks the Taliban attacker, “How is the fire?”