University students protest fellows’ detention

JALALABAD (PAN): Hundreds of university students on Wednesday protested the detention of their fellows by intelligence officials in eastern Nangarhar province, calling for their immediate release.

The protesting Nangarhar University students claimed National Directorate of Security (NDS Faculty undergraduates.

Blocking the Kabul-Jalalabad highway from 9:00am to 12pm and chanting slogans against NDS and America, the students vowed to continue their protest until their fellows were released.

Deputy police chief Col. Abdullah Talwar told Pajhwok Afghan News that two students –travelling from the Torkham border town to Nangrahar — had been arrested with suspicious documents, seven days ago. The duo was being interrogated, he said.

After the demonstration ended, the Nangrahar National Television released footage showing the detained students confessing to their links with the Taliban.

One of the detainees, Ahmad Ghayur, a resident of central Logar province, admitted having spent nine days at Peshawar’s Shamshatoo camp, where he received training on how to plant a roadside bomb.

Aziz Rahman, alias Khalid, the second detainee, said he had been trained by a person named Talha in the Waziristan tribal region in using rocket launchers, Kalashnikov and emplacing bombs.

He added he had gone to Pakistan on February 21 for a military training on the advice of a Taliban commander in central Maidan Wardak province. However, he did not go into details.

A 10-member group of protestors later held talks with Governor Gul Agha Sherzai about the arrests, the deputy police chief said.

mds/ma/mud