Afghanistan Times
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AT Monitoring Desk-KABUL: The Ministry of Interior (MoI) on Monday said that it was mulling to establish a special unit consisting of 7,000 policemen to ensure security of the vital Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline in the country.
The deputy spokesman for the MoI, Najib Danish, told Azadi Radio that they have enough troops to ensure security of the pipeline project. He said that the troops would be deployed to safeguard the pipeline route. He said that Afghan security forces will spare no efforts to ensure better security of the project.
He said that construction works of the project was inaugurated last week in Ashgabat, the capital city of Turkmenistan.
This comes at a time that the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Abdullah Abdullah hoped that the project would also help in improvement of security in Afghanistan. Talking to the plenary session of the Council of Ministers (CoM), he said that despite its economic importance, the project was expected to also improve security situation in the region.
In the meantime some security analysts believe the 7,000 troops are not enough. Hai Gul Sulaimankhel, a security analyst, said that the government should deploy 15,000 to 20,000 troops to safeguard the pipeline route. He added that Pakistan and India should also play their role in ensuring security of the project.
