KABUL (SW) – Interior Minister Massoud Andarabi on Tuesday blamed the Taliban for the string of targeted assassinations and bomb blasts.
Minister Andarabi along with the National Directorate of Security chief Ahmad Zia Siraj was called by the Wolesi Jirga (lower house) to answer questions and explain the security situation, especially the targeted assassinations.
He said the Taliban have stepped up these attacks since their signing of the agreement with the United States in order to gain more ground in the intra-Afghan peace negotiations.
He added that the Taliban had tried to overrun a number of cities, including Kandahar and Helmand, but had failed and eventually mobilized their fighters to detonate the IEDs and carry out targeted assassinations.
According to Andarabi, the confessions of a number of Taliban detainees showed that after the Doha agreement, a group called “Obaida” was formed by the militants in Logar province with the aim of assassinating government employees, journalists and civil society activists in order to assassinate them.
Ahmad Zia Siraj, the NDS chief said, said 18,200 such attacks have been launched across the country this year, 99 percent of which were carried out by the Taliban and another 1 percent by the so-called Daesh.
He added that more than 6,100 people had been arrested by the NDS in connection with various crimes this year, including 3,600 in terrorist incidents, 270 in targeted assassinations and seven in suicide attacks.
Over the past two months, five journalists, several prosecutors, human rights defenders and a women’s rights activist have been killed in targeted assassinations and bomb blasts in Kabul and other provinces. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks.
ENDS
