KABUL (Pajhwok): Acting Defense Minister Asadullah Khalid on Sunday said the Afghan security forces would allow no one to resort to violence post-election and the Afghans would not accept a peace deal leading to another war.’
Khalid expressed these views while addressing a three-day conference “Military Women, peace and security” in Kabul today.
Peace
Nine rounds of talks between the Taliban and the US had taken place in Doha, the capital of Qatar, but US President Donald Trump cancelled the talks in September.
However, hopes raised for peace again after the exchange of three Taliban prisoners with two professors of the American university in Afghanistan.
A meeting about peace is also expected to be held between government representatives, politicians and the Taliban in China in near future.
About the peace process, Khalid said only an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace process could end the conflict and no power on earth could impose something on the Afghans against their will.
He said peace has its own conditions and civil and military achievements made during the last two decades would be protected.
Khalid said no power would be allowed to dissolve the Afghans security forces — a past mistake that will not be repeated
“We will never allow a peace that leads to another war in the country,” he asserted, saying the government’s priority was protection of achievements and values, not holding on to power.
Election
The acting defense minister also talked about the September presidential election at the conference.
Asadullah Khalid said Afghan security forces would keep their neutrality in the election process.
“I am sure our politicians have the tact not to push the election into a crisis. The Afghan security forces will not allow any violence that endangers the public life, violence is not acceptable by any means,” he said. He added that Afghan forces were able to control any type of violence.
This comes as Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, first vice-president, on November 19 during a meeting with Wolesi Jirga members in Jawzjan province warned Afghan forces not to create violence against people.
“It is not justifiable when a number of our people were killed by security forces in Kunduz and if they repeat this, we will respond with bullet,” he had said.
Video clips circulating on social media show police forces spray water on a group of protestors opposing recount and audit of votes in front of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) branch in Kunduz province.
The videos also show that police fire into the air during the protest.
Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, a presidential candidate, claimed that police in Kunduz opened fire on his supporters and killed one of them.
However, Pajhwok Afghan News findings show that the person killed near the IEC office was not a supporter of Abdullah’s team.
A number of other candidates also said that they would not accept the result of the election because they say the election was massively rigged.
Presidential election was held on September 28. Earlier the IEC had given October 19 the date for announcement of preliminary result while November 7 for announcement of final result of the presidential election.
But due to some technical issues and problems during separation of clean and fraudulent votes, the IEC could not announce the result on its due date.
On October 27, the IEC said that primary result of the presidential election would be announced on November 14, but the commission again delayed the date for an indefinite of time.
mds/ma
Views: 1