HELMAND: Six people freed from the Bagram jail in central Parwan province were reunited with their families at a ceremony in southern Helmand province on Tuesday.
Detained on charges of having links with militants, the men hailed were from Helmand, Kandahar, Uruzgan and Herat provinces, Governor Muhammad Gulab Mangal said.
“Imprisonment is a lesson to criminals in understanding the value of freedom and a wholesome life,” Mangal remarked, urging the men to cut ties to insurgents live in peace.
Provincial peace council chief, Mualim Shah Wali, asked foreign forces to stop arresting innocent people during their operations.
Law enforcement officer at Bagram prison, Maj. Gen. Omer Jan, claimed the prisoners were not treated illegally. “We are trying to contest the cases of all those who are imprisoned by foreign forces.”
According to Khairullah, one of the released prisoners from Shindand district of Herat province, he remained behind bars for four months but did not know his crime.
“Driving a vehicle on the Kandahar-Herat highway, I was detained by foreign soldiers,” he said, adding many detainees in Bagram were unaware of their offences.
—Zainullah Stanikzai
mas/mud
KABUL: Three insurgents and an Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier were killed and four fighters detained during joint operations over the past 24 hours in different provinces, the ministries of interior and defence said on Tuesday.
The operations were conducted by Afghan and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force troops in the Greshk district of southern Helmand province and Syedabad district of central Maidan Wardak.
A statement from the Ministry of Interior (MoI) said three AK-47 assault rifles, four pistols, 16 hand grenades, 11 kilograms of explosives and a vehicle were seized during the operations.
Additionally, security personnel recovered four anti-vehicle mines, two artillery shells, defused a roadside bomb and detained a suspected militant in Kunduz, Zabul and Kandahar provinces.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defence said 13 hand grenades, five AK-47 rifles, two bayonets, a pistol with 400 bullets and some explosives were seized in Sabari and Nader Shah Kot districts of Khost.
Four and a half tonnes of hashish, eight kg of explosives and five anti-vehicle mines were confiscated in the Kandahar, Helmand and Kunar provinces. One ANA soldier was killed and three others were injured in the line of duty.
mrh/mud
KHOST: Two insurgents planting a roadside bomb were killed in an airstrike by NATO-led troops in southeastern Khost province, the alliance and local officials said on Tuesday.
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the airstrike was carried out in the Mandozai district, but a local security official said it happened in the Shambawat area of Nadir Shah Kot district.
A combined security force called the airstrike after it observed a group of militants planting a 100-pound (45 kilogram) bomb. Two fighters were killed in the overnight precision strike and three others were detained, an ISAF statement said.
A rocket-propelled grenade, multiple firearms and bomb-making materials were also confiscated during the operation, it added.
Maj. Saat Gul Hotak, a spokesman for the 203rd Thunder Military Corps, told Pajhwok Afghan News the two were planting mines on the Shambawat-Khost highway. They came under attack from ISAF aircraft.
The ISAF statement said the operation was conducted in pursuit of a Haqqani Network leader, accused of operating an insurgent cell in Nadir Shah Kot district and planning roadside bomb attacks throughout the area.
The leader was captured in Nadir Shah Kot, it said, accusing the detainee of training fighters and directing bomb attacks.
Meanwhile, two suspected guerrillas were arrested along with weapons and explosives during an operation by Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers in the Sabari district, according to Hotak.
Thirteen hand-grenades, five firecrackers, one AK-47 assault rifle and some explosives were seized in the operation, he said.
In a separate raid, an Afghan and coalition force, searching for a Taliban facilitator, confiscated bomb-making material, multiple weapons and ammunition and detained several suspects in Baghlan-i-Jadid district of northern Baghlan province.
pr/mrh/ma/mud
KHOST: Foreign troops detained a district development council member along with three of his relatives in southeastern Khost province, an official said on Tuesday.
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldiers arrested Kaptan along with his son and two brothers during an operation in Nadir Shah Kot district late on Monday night.
Jamal Nasir, the district chief, told Pajhwok Afghan News the raid was unilaterally conducted by foreign troops without consulting Afghan forces. The detainees were cooperating with the government in running district affairs and had no links with insurgents, he added.
Earlier in the day, ISAF said a joint force had apprehended a Haqqani network leader in the district. The NATO-led force accused the detainee of planting roadside bombs and directing attacks on security forces.
mrh /ma/mud
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