Afghan National Security Adviser (NSA) Hamdullah Mohib has announced the re-arrest of 600 Taliban insurgents, saying national security intelligence information indicates that Taliban are preparing for war, not peace .
NSA Mohib made the remarks at a security meeting of the Air Force Corps in Kabul today.
Mohib said that despite the Taliban had promised to reduce violence in Doha; But this winter was the bloodiest in recent years, with more explosions, targeted assassinations and the destruction of public facilities.
He stated that whether the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks or not; But evidence from the National Directorate of Security (NDS) shows that the attacks and assassinations were carried out by the Taliban and that the group have not cut ties with international terrorists.
Noting that the Afghan government is willing to make any sacrifice for peace in the country, he said: “The release of 5,000 Taliban was of no use in bringing peace, and the 600 Taliban who went back to the battlefields, have been arrested after fighting with the Afghan forces again.”
NSA warned that under no circumstances, the Taliban prisoners would be released again.
The National Security Adviser and his accompanying delegation also visited the Special Operations Corps, the Air Force, special police units, the counter-narcotics unit, and evaluated the implementation of plan for the deployment of Air Forcss.
In the meantime, Yassin Zia, the Army Chief of Staff, said security forces had suffered the most casualties since the peace talks began.
“The release of 5,000 prisoners and the term of ‘reduction in violence’ have led to the fact that the security forces
decreased their pressures and activities for the aim of peace, but the Taliban misused the peace issue,” he said.
“The Taliban militants wanted to show that they can win the war and increased their attacks; But with facing Afghan forces, thousands of them were killed in the battlegrounds,” Zia asserted.
He warned the Taliban to come and face Afghan forces in the battlefields, not to assassinate civilians, journalists and planting mines.
The senior Afghan security official called the ongoing war in the country an intelligence war led from outside the country, adding: “No Taliban have yet seen their leaders and commanders because they are abroad.”
The Interior Minister Massoud Andarabi also said that the security institutions are committed to peace commitments and that if the Taliban and other groups chose the war, they would face a harsh response from Afghan security and defense forces.
He added that the new joint structure of the special forces, which was newly created under the leadership of the President, would increase the level of coordination of the security forces in special operations and the respond to opposition movements.
