Fresh violence claims 18 lives

KABUL): Six local policemen were among 18 people killed in separate incidents of violence in different parts of the country over the past 24 hours, officials said on Sunday.

“An illegal armed commander,” Fakhruddin Shahriyar, was killed along with five of his gunmen during a clash with police in the Dawlatyar district of western Ghor province, Police Chief Col. Dilawar Shah Dilawar told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Another four illegal armed men were wounded in the clash that occurred on Saturday night when the gunmen were collecting ushar from area residents, he said.

In Ghazni, six local policemen were killed and four others wounded during a clash with Taliban insurgents in the Khoizi area of Maqur district on Sunday, the town’s administrative head, Sahib Khan, said.

However, a Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, claimed 10 local policemen, including their two commanders, were killed in the clash.

Elsewhere in the province, five Taliban fighters were killed and two security men were injured during a firefight in the Khogyani district, said Nazifullah, the 203rd Thunder Military Crops spokesman.

Mujahid confirmed the death of only two fighters, claiming five ANA soldiers were killed and their three vehicles destroyed.

Separately, ANA soldiers beaten to death a person in the Nawa district of southern Helmand province, residents claimed. They brought the dead body to the governor’s office, calling for the killers to be brought to justice.

The protestors said unknown gunmen opened fire at the ANA headquarters in the district and the soldiers next day arrested six local residents on the suspicion of being involved. The troops beaten to death one of them, one of the protesters, Maulvi Abdul Rashid, said.

Another protesting man, Hajji Syed Gul, alleged the ANA members were involved in victimising and intimidating local residents on ethnic ground.

“Pakhtun are terrorists, all of you will meet the same fate if you do not shun violence,” he quoted an ANA soldier as telling them while handing over them the dead body.

However, the governor’s spokesman, Omar Zhwak, said five suspects detained in connection with the fire incident were being interrogated.

In Helmand, intelligence officials found a roadside bomb making factory in the Nahr-i-Siraj district, the provincial National Directorate of Security department said in a statement.

Two bomb-rigged motorbikes  parked along a road were also seized on the outskirts of Lashkargah, the provincial capital, the statement added. Different kinds of ammunitions were recovered from the factory, it concluded.

myn/ma

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