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Friday March 29, 2024

33 militants killed in Afghan raids

KABUL, March 28 (NNI): About 33 militants have been killed during separate cleanup operations in Afghanistan, said the country’s Interior Ministry on Saturday.“Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) launched cleanup operations in Nangarhar, Parwan, Badakhshan, Kandahar, Wardak, Logar, Ghazni, Herat, Farah and Helmand provinces over the past 24 hours, killing 33

By our correspondents
March 29, 2015
KABUL, March 28 (NNI): About 33 militants have been killed during separate cleanup operations in Afghanistan, said the country’s Interior Ministry on Saturday.
“Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) launched cleanup operations in Nangarhar, Parwan, Badakhshan, Kandahar, Wardak, Logar, Ghazni, Herat, Farah and Helmand provinces over the past 24 hours, killing 33 armed Taliban members,” the ministry said in a statement providing daily operational updates.
Some 14 militants were wounded while nine others were detained by the ANSF during the raids, the statement added.
The security forces also found and seized weapons, the statement said, without adding if there were any casualties on the side of the security forces.
The Taliban insurgent group, which has been waging an insurgency of more than one decade, has yet to make comments.
Meanwhile, the twenty drivers taken hostage by Taliban militants in central Uruzgan province have been released as result of tribal elders’ negotiation, an official said on Saturday.
The militants stopped 20 trucks on their way from Kandahar to the Kajran district of Uruzgan and took the drivers to an unknown location on Wednesday.
Later, the hostages were shifted to the Sarab area of Charchino district. Kajran district chief, Zamin Poya had said the truckers were residents of Daikundi.
Dost Mohammad Nayab, the Uruzgan governor’s spokesman said all hostages had been released. They reached their homes. , Pajhwok Afghan News reported.
He said the drivers were freed after 15 elders negotiated with the Taliban. The local administration also played an active role in releasing the captives, he added.
Taliban’s shadow district chief for Charchino, Mullah Hikmatullah, was involved in the kidnappings, Nayab alleged. But the insurgents denied the claim.
Daikundi police chief, Brig. Gen. Juma Guldi, confirmed the drivers’ release. He insisted the releases had been unconditional.
A month back, 30 passengers were kidnapped on the Kabul-Kandahar highway by unknown gunmen in the Shah Joi district of Zabul province. Their fate is still unknown.
In another development, Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs (MoI) has dispatched the cases of 28 suspects involved in killing and burning of 27-year-old woman, Farkhunda, to the Attorney General’s Office (AGO), MoI said in a statement on Saturday.
The announcement comes as the Minister of Hajj and Religious Affairs, Faiz Mohammad Osmani, and the acting Justice Minister, Sayed Yousuf Halim, have been called to the Parliament to brief the lawmakers on Farkhunda’s killing.
She was beaten to death, burnt and thrown into muddy Kabul River by a mob last week over alleged burning of Holy Quran, an accusation strongly rejected by the security agencies and the investigation teams as baseless.
Her brutal killing sparked countrywide protests, demanding ultimate penalty for the perpetrators.