Govt forces did not come to militia aid against IS: Qadir

JALALABAD (Pajhwok): Lawmaker Haji Zahir Qadir on Sunday said government forces did not come to the aid of uprising members during yesterday clashes with Islamic State or Daesh militants in eastern Nangarhar province.

Qadir was speaking at a press conference in Jalalabad, the provincial capital, after reports that his militia and Daesh militants had beheaded four fighters from each side in tit-for-tat killings after clashes in the Achin district.

Qadir, also the first deputy speaker of Wolesi Jirga or lower house of parliament, said the clash between Daesh and the uprising group began at 9am on Saturday morning and stretched into noon. Four militiamen and nine IS fighters were killed and another eight Daesh militants were wounded during the clashes, he said.

“The clash lasted three hours but government forces did not arrive to support the uprising group,” the lawmaker said. He said Daesh militants launched a three-pronged attack on the militiamen, but they did not succeed in capturing any area.

Qadir also said the Radio Caliphate continued to air its broadcasts and had not been put off airwaves. To a question about the beheading of Daesh militants by the uprising group, he said: “They (Daesh) martyred four members of the uprising movement and cut off their heads. Deaths happen in war.”

The militiamen, loyalists of Qadir, who have assembled in a military base in Achin district, acknowledged both sides had suffered casualties during yesterday clashes.

A representative of the uprising group and tribal elder, Mullah Jan, told Pajhwok Afghan News: “Daesh militants had beheaded our four men and we also beheaded their four fighters who were already dead. We have beheaded dead persons.”

Earlier, the Achin district chief, Haji Ghalib Mujahid, told Pajhwok Afghan News said Haji Qadir loyalists had beheaded four Daesh fighters and had put their heads on a pile of stones on the side of a road.

He called the beheadings as extrajudicial and said: “It should not have been done that Haji Zahir’s men act like barbarians Daesh.”

The governor’s spokesman, Attaullah Khogyani, said an investigation into the incident had been launched. About government’s support for the uprising group, he said government supported uprising group who acted within the government framework, but the militia in Achin did not operate in cooperation with the government.

The self-styled Islamic State group has so far not commented about the incident.

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