At least 30 civilians were killed and injured in an operation of security forces Musa Qala district, local officials said.

A provincial council member, Bashir Ahmad Shakir told Reporterly on Monday, “security forces 03 Unit of Kandahar province carried out an operation on Sunday night in Takhta Pol village of Musa Qala district of Helmand against leaders of Al_Qaeda and Taliban in which a wedding ceremony was also targeted.”

He added that based on obtained reports from intelligence and security agencies and local residents, 15 civilians were killed and 15 others were injured in the operation.

Most of the victims of the raid are women and children, he said.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) in a statement said that 22 foreign Taliban fighters were killed, 14 others were arrested and a weaponry cache was also destroyed.

The Ministry of Defense has emphasized to investigation over the civilian casulaties and the results will be shared with the public soon.

The Taliban group has killed three brothers in Pasaband district of Ghor province, local officials confirmed.

The provincial governor spokesman, Abdulhai Khatibi told Reporterly on Monday that the Taliban gun downed the brothers on Wednesday 19, September.

Khatibi added that the victims were a government employee, a teacher and the other one was a student who also worked as a farmer.

They were shot dead while they were restoring their home, the provincial governor spokesperson said.

He further said that the Taliban killed them in accusation of working with the government.

Abdulhai Khatibi noted that the insurgents who killed the brothers are related to the group of Mullah Hejrat, a local Taliban commander.

Dozens of Taliban insurgents were killed in security forces’ operation in Helmand province on Sunday night and civilians also suffered casualties during the operation, local officials said.

Speaking to Reporterly, the provincial spokesperson Omer Zawak said, “22 Taliban insurgents including commanders of the group were killed in a raid of Afghan security forces carried out in vicinity of Takht Pol area in Musa Qala district.”

“During the operation, an air-strike targeted a Taliban’s weaponry cache which caused explosion and as a result of it, the civilians also suffered casualties. The exact number of casualties is not clear and investigations are underway,” Zawak added.

Reports suggest that at least 14 civilians were killed and 3 others were injured during the operation.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) in a statement said that 22 foreign Taliban fighters were killed, 14 others were arrested and a weaponry cache was also destroyed.

MoD statement added that 5 Pakistani fighters of the group and a Bangladeshi national are also among the detainees.

The Ministry of Defense has emphasized to investigate over the civilian casulaties and will share the result with public soon.

At least five drug-smugglers have been arrested from Kandahar International Airport, the Ministry of Interior (MoI) said.

MoI in a statement on Monday said that Afghan border police at Kandahar International Airport apprehended 5 individuals who were attempting to smuggle around two kilograms of heroin to India.

The statement added that these smugglers had ingested the heroin for smuggling to India.

Maliha Hassan and Homaira Haqmal, the two ex-commissioners of electoral commissions were taken to hospital and are in intensive care after a medical episode at the jail, the Attorney General Office (AGO) said.

“The two former commissioners of electoral commissions who had earlier been sentenced to prison in connection with an election case were sent to the hospital for medical treatment”, Jamshid Rasouli, a spokesperson for AGO said on Sunday night.

Rasouli’s remarks come as a number of relatives of Maliha Hassan and Homaira Haqmal had complainted to the media that the two former commissioners are sick but were not taken to the hospital for treatment.

Meanwhile, ex-chairmen of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and the Independent Election Complaint Commission (IECC) along with eight commissioners of electoral commissions have been trialed in a public hearing on 3rd of September 2019 at the Anti-Corruption and Justice Center (ACJC) and jailed for five years each.

Maliha Hassan’s sickness and her critical condition in the prison also prompted the reaction of Afghan social media users who demanded her evacuation for treatment in the hospital.

The Minister of Interior Affairs, Massoud Andarabi in an interview with AP at the Minstry of Interior (MoI) in Kabul has said that police are also the hardest hit, taking up 70% of the casualties among security forces in relentless attacks by Taliban and IS-K insurgents.

Andrabi spoke about what he called a slow, steady overhaul of the police during an interview with AP inside the heavily fortified ministry in the capital, Kabul.

He is setting up systems that he hopes will result in a professional force, one owned and operated by Afghans.

Andarabi said he’s instituted a new recruitment and promotion system that’s based on what you know, instead of who you know. It’s an attempt to take the “middle men” out of appointments and promotions to try to tackle corruption that is rife in the selection and promotion of police in Afghanistan.

Today, many senior officers in Afghanistan’s security institutions were only in high school when the Taliban were ousted, he said. They spent the intervening years studying and gaining experience.

“All these new leaders in the security sector … don’t have a legacy of fighting; don’t have the background of different factions, or different groups. This all makes them a team with a common belief,” he said.

He’s also brought in a new computerized data system that tracks allegations of corruption and the officers involved. The hope of this technocratic solution is that eventually a profile will emerge showing areas and people committing the infractions, as well as the types of corruption.

US special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad has met with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khanin in New York on the sidelines of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

According to Pakistani officials, Khalilzad shared with the premier “how far his negotiations with the Taliban had gone, the nature of the talks and what expectations he holds in the future”.

They added that Khalilzad presented his entire analysis of the US-Taliban talks.

They discussed various issues including the Afghan peace process on Sunday, Radio Pakistan reported.

During the meeting, the prime minister expressed hope the peace talks with the Afghan militant outfit would be revived to achieve regional peace. There had been no statement by the US envoy though.

The talks had been called off by US President Donald Trump after the Taliban stepped up attacks in the country.