Reserve police to be sent to Afghan-controlled areas

KABUL-led troops to Afghan security forces, a Ministry of Interior spokesman said on Tuesday.

The deployment would take place in the near future, Ghulam Siddique Siddiqui told a news conference in Kabul. In line with its commitment, the ministry will also dispatch a police battalion to Helmand.

Despite fears and concerns, the spokesman said, no militant attack had happened during the security transition process, which got under way in the central province of Bamyan on July 17.

In the first phase, foreign soldiers handed security control for Bamyan, Panjsher, Lashkargah, Herat City, Mehtarlam, Mazar-i-Sharif and Kabul. ISAF will hand security over to the Afghan army and police in a gradual process due to be completed by the end of 2014.

Speaking at a meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) on Sunday, head of the transition process, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, said the second, third and fourth phases had begun and a policy in this regard would be worked out over the next three months,.

Under pressure from the security personnel, militants were shifting their tactics by wearing women‘s clothes, burqas and scarves, the spokesman said. Last week, police arrested six men in women’s clothes who planned to carry out suicide attacks in Kunar, Kandahar and Maidan Wardak provinces.

The fighters would try to launch spectacular attacks to show the world their strength, the spokesman said, insisting the security forces were ready for the transition project and would scuttle attempts at derailing it.

frm/mud

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