KUNDUZ CITY (SW): The locals in Kunduz believe that the Taliban have full control over four districts Qala Zal, Kulbat, Gultapa and Aqtash in this northern province.
Reports emerging from Kunduz suggest food shortages, lack of drinking water and closure of routes to these four districts have crippled the life there.
The President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani recently issued a decree establishing three new districts in the province aimed at ensuring security but the areas for these districts are said to be under the control of the militants.
The residents fear the government has no plan to expel the militants out of these districts. They said that the Taliban insurgents have closed the routes to the provincial centre by laying mines in Gultapa and Qala-e-Zaal districts.
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Amruddin Wali, a member at the Kunduz Provincial Council said that it has been 8 months since the decree for the establishment of the three new districts but they have been overrun by the militants, and the government has no plan to recapture them.
Gen. Qasim Jangal Bagh, police chief in the province, said that due to the militants’ presence in the newly established districts, the police chief and other personnel manage the affairs from Kunduz city.
He said that they would soon conduct a mop-up operation in cooperation with the Afghan National Army (ANA) to clear the militants off the districts. He said that the mop-up operation is already underway to reclaim Qala-e-Zaal from the militants.
ENDS
