Women’s arrest sparks angry protest in Helmand

LASHKARGAH (Pajhwok): Hundreds of residents on Tuesday protested in southern Helmand province against the detention of two women during an Afghan forces operation and demanded their prompt release.

Former President Hamid Karzai also condemned the incident and asked for the release of the two women.

Local officials say the operation was conducted by 03 Special Unit forces from neighboring southern Kandahar province three days ago.

The Helmand governor’s house says two Al Qaeda members were killed and two women and two men arrested for their alleged links with the terrorist group.

On the other hand, hundreds of protestors on Tuesday closed the Herat-Helmand highway against traffic near Lashkargah, the provincial capital, and asked for the women be released.

Maulvi Abdul Ghafar, a resident of Nad Ali district and participant of the protest, told Pajhwok Afghan News that Afghan forces raided a house where only doctors were living.

He said two people were killed and two women were taken away by the Afghan forces during the raid.

He rejected statements of the governor’s house about the killing of Al Qaeda members and the arrested women were affiliated with the group.

Ghafar warned they would continue their protest and shut the governor’s house if the women were not freed.

Mualvi Abdul Hadi, another protestor, said the operation was against all Islamic and Afghanistan values. “Capturing women and beating them is like killing and torturing us,” he said.

However, Helmand Governor Maj. Gen. Mohammad Yasin Khan said that all those killed or captured were members of Al Qaeda. But he said that they had asked the central government to respect the Afghan culture and release the women.

Former President Hamid Karzai in a statement received by Pajhwok Afghan News condemned the incident as an anti-humanitarian and anti-Afghan act and asked the government to release the people captured in the incident with respect and stop operations on Afghans’ villages.

The Taliban also said those killed and captured were civilians.

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