Local uprising forces to fall under the police and army: officials

Local uprising forces will in the future operate under the umbrella of the Afghan Interior Ministry (MoI) and the Ministry of Defense (MoD), officials said on Sunday.

Tariq Arian, spokesman for the MoI said that the government has decided to pull in local uprising forces under their command, as they have done with local police and local army.

Security officials said that weapons will only be handed over to members of the uprising forces if they are registered with either the local police or the local army.

“We do not have any formation for uprising force members. We will not support them unless the forces register officially with Afghan forces,” said Ajmal Omar Shinwari, a spokesman for the security sector.

Meanwhile, Atta Mohammad Noor, former governor of Balkh and local uprising forces commander for parts of northern Afghanistan, warned Taliban that they will resist them if they continue fighting.

“We have distributed weapons to the people and will stand by people to defend our country. We have defended our country and will continue to defend it,” said Noor.

On the other hand, sources told Ariana News that clashes between Taliban and Afghan security forces were ongoing on the outskirts of Kunduz, Ghazni, Sheberghan, Sar-e-Pul, Pul-e-Khumri, Kandahar and Maymana cities in the past 24 hours.

Furthermore, local officials of Badghis province said that the Taliban has carried out its fifth attack on Qala-e-Naw city but the insurgents were repelled by Afghan forces.
Hessamuddin Shams, governor of Badghis province, said that 12 Taliban members were killed in the attacks.

In addition to this, sources confirmed that the Pasaband district of Ghor and Garmsir district of Helmand province were seized by the Taliban in the past 24 hours.

However, contradictory reports have emerged about the Islam Qala border crossing in Herat and Sher Khan crossing in Kunduz. Officials have not yet confirmed the status of these two crossings with Ariana News.