LASHKARGAH (SW): Security officials in southern Helmand province have expressed concerns over deteriorating law and order situation in the restive Sangin district.
According to the officials, fighting between the security forces and the Taliban militants are still underway in Sangin. Some 25 security officials, including the district police chief have reportedly fallen in these fighting so far.
Local elders and civil society organisations blame the government for not doing enough to ensure peace. They charge that the units of Afghan Special Forces were deployed in Sangin for a very brief time only to be withdrawn few days later.
Ghulam Jan, head of the Helmand Civil Society assert that the officials are simply lying when it comes to law and order in Sangin. Mohammad Dawood, a local tribal elder too has similar views. They remark that tense of security officials have died in the fighting so far and a number of government buildings have been torched in the fighting.
They also expressed fear that the Taliban might overrun this part of the country once again if the authorities kept ignoring it.
Umar Zwak, spokesman for the provincial governor however, discards such allegations. He assured that the security forces’ clean-up operations against the militants were successful.
ENDS
