Protest leaders promoting personal agenda, alleges Mohaqiq

KABUL (Pajhwok): Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mohammad Mohaqiq on Thursday denounced the protest in Kabul, alleging the rally was stage-managed by those who failed to get jobs in current administration.

During a meeting with representatives of protesters, he recalled the president had ordereda special offensive in Zabul province last year after the kidnapping of 31 passengers. Foreign forces were also a part of the operation, he said.

“I don’t want to admire the president and score some brownie points. I have personally fought against the Taliban,” the deputy CEO said.

As a result of efforts by the National Directorate of Security (NDS), 19 of the abducted individuals had been released and the government never committed negligence in protection of civilians, he insisted.

He told the protesters’ representatives the beheading of seven civilians in Zabul province was a terrible and inhuman act, but similar incidents had taken place in other parts of the country as well.

He recalled, the Daesh fighters had brutally killed a child in front of his parents in Nangarhar province besides putting to death 14 people, including three women. The rebels had committed similar atrocities in Balkh and Badakhshan provinces as well, he explained.

Mohaqiq added some people who lost the previous election and were unable to get their desired positions in government were behind yesterday’s massive protest in the capital against the beheadings.

The deputy CEO also assailed the individuals behind Thursday’sdemonstration for trying to gain personal benefitsin the garb of such protests. On Wednesday, thousands of people marched through the capital streets against the beheadings.

The IS gunmen abducted the seven civilians, including four women and a child, from the Jaghori district of Ghazni about a month back. The hostages were decapitated in Arghandab district on November 8.

Outraged by the beheadings, Kabul residents rallied from Kota Sangi area to the Presidential Palace. The slogan-chanting demonstrators, including civil society members, carried the victims’ bodies.

nh/mud

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