Afghanistan Times
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AT-KABUL: Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) on Saturday expressed concern over the government’s move to distribute arms among locals to fight militants.
The watchdog said it fears the process will arm a number of human rights violators, adding that the move will result in worsening security situation in parts of the country if the weapons fell into the hand of opportunist figures.
Members of the internal security commission of the Wolesi Jirga—the Lower House of the parliament—have vehemently criticized the government’s act to arm a number of locals for fighting against militants, and said that it was not a good alternative to boost up security in the country.
Sources have said that powerful individuals and a number of MPs in some provinces have introduced groups of locals to receive weapons as part of a plan to fight rebels.
However, the remarks have been rejected by the Interior Ministry.
“We are really concerned about the issue. Violation will be increased if the government distributed arms among a number of locals in parts of the country,” quoted by TOLONews, AIHRC spokesman Rafiullah Bidar said.
A number of experts believe that such attempts were taken in the past but yielded bad and negative consequences therefore it should not be repeated once again.
