Daily Security Brief: November 20, 2011

GHAZNI: A financier of Taliban militants was arrested with arms in the Muqar district of southern Ghazni province, an Afghan army official said on Sunday.

Col. Daud Shah Wafadar, the 203rd Thunder Military Corps commander, called the arrest a major blow to the insurgents. The arrest came at a checkpoint in the district on Saturday evening.

With a broken leg disability, the detainee was shown to journalists along with the arms and car seized from him. However, reporters were not allowed to talk to him.

According to Wafadar, who gave no more details about the detainee, the man raised funds for the militants.

–Mirwais Himmat

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NANGARHAR:  Thirty land grabbers were detained after they opened fire on a government team razing illegally constructed buildings in the Surkh Road district of eastern Nangarhar province.

The shooting happened when a government delegation, including the appellate court chief, was visiting the area, the governor’s spokesman, Ahmad Zeya Abdulzai, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

He said the delegation was visiting the area to retake government-owned land from grabbers. Two children were injured in the incident.

Provincial appellate court judge, Abdul Qayyum, said they came under fire from encroachers in the Ganda Chashma area, where they planned to destroy 15 illegally constructed houses.

–Abdul Mueed Hashimi

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PAKTIA: Afghan and foreign forces detained 10 fighters during a search operation in Zurmat district of southeastern Paktia province, an official claimed on Sunday. But locals said the detainees were innocent civilians.

The Taliban were arrested in the Mamozai area of the district over the past 24 hours, a spokesman for the 203rd Thunder Military Corps, Saad Gul Hotak, told Pajhwok Afghan News. Two Kalashnikovs, binoculars, cameras and a bag of sensitive documents were seized.

Cars were burnt and houses looted during operations in different villages over the last few days, tribal elder Haji Gulab Shah complained. “There are no Taliban in the area, but security forces broke women‘s boxes and took away money.”

But Gul Hotak rejected the claim as groundless and said the allegation was aimed to bring a bad name to the Afghan National Army.

–Daud Tapan

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