Amid rising crime levels in the country, Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani has handed over the responsibility of overseeing the security of Kabul to First Vice President Amrullah Saleh for the next few weeks.

Edmund Fitton-Brown, coordinator of the United Nations monitoring team for Islamic State (ISIS), al-Qaeda, and the Taliban warned on Friday that senior al-Qaeda members are still in Afghanistan, as well as hundreds of armed operatives.

Counter-narcotics police on Saturday arrested three people at Hamid Karzai International Airport for attempting to smuggle 79kg of heroin out of the country.

Abdullah Abdullah’s recent visit to Pakistan, as head of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation, “reflects growing stability and mutual trust,” between Afghanistan and Pakistan, said Amina Khan, Director for the Center for Middle East & Africa at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad.