AT-KABUL: Twenty-three Taliban insurgents were killed and five others injured in a clearance operation lunched by security forces Sunday in the Argo district of the northern Badakhshan province, ministry of interior said.
“The security forces also arrested nine insurgents and seized a large number of ammunition in the militants’ hideouts,” the ministry said in a statement.
“All the villages of Argo district have been cleared from insurgents.”
On the other hand, the provincial police chief Col. Sakhidad Haidari said that a seven-member group of armed insurgents joined the peace process in the province.
He added that Qari Bismillah, Taliban’s military chief in Argo district along with his comrades armed with AK-47 machine guns joined the pace process. “Their joining will put a positive effect in security situation.”
Qari Bismillah said: “I had been wasting my time with the Taliban for three years. But now, I realize that war does not help us to have a calm life, so, I wanted to stand with security forces to defend my homeland.”
The head of the high peace council in Badakhshan Ghaus-al-Rahmani said since the beginning of the pace efforts in 2010, more than 600 militants had joined the peace process in the province.