Afghan chaos growing Options

[heritage]

Another black hole for taxpayers money

'US has budgeted $780 million this year to support the antinarcotics battle."

Obviously, the Bush administration had no plan to run this country after the war either.

This post has been edited by heritage: Jun 13 2005, 07:49 AM

[Acebass]

Another black hole for taxpayers money

'US has budgeted $780 million this year to support the antinarcotics battle."

Obviously, the Bush administration had no plan to run this country after the war either.

Think of the healthcare that money would buy.

[heritage]

C-span did a program on Gitmo this weekend.

All the republican callers tied the "terrorists" in Gitmo with the terrorists fighting in Iraq and 9-11. The republican guest defended calling all the prisoners terrorists and holding them indefinitely however long the "war on terror" lasts.

The pro-democrat military lawyer said on;t 4 of hundreds have been scheduled for military hearings. Many have been freed with no charges brought. Gitmo was to keep the prisoners "out of mind" of the citizens. The Supreme Court says they all deserve a hearing. It has been 4 years - their families don't even know what is going on! The lawyer said that the international laws require a swift determination after capture.

Many in Gitmo were rounded up by the locals who were paid cash rewards to turn in Taliban fighters. We spent millions on bribes and bounties. Bush declared these captives "enemy compatants" not under the Geneva convention. The Prisoners in Iraq are POWs under the Geneva convention.

This post has been edited by heritage: Jun 13 2005, 08:16 AM

[ghostgovt]

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsarticl...AST-SUICIDE.xml

Suicide bomber kills five US troops in Afghanistan
Mon Jun 13, 2005 6:26 AM BST

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives into a U.S. military convoy in southern Afghanistan on Monday, killing at least five American soldiers, police said.

The blast came from a taxi as a U.S. military convoy was heading down a main road to the west of Kandahar city, said a senior police officer, who did no want to be identified.

"The latest report I have is that five people in the vehicle that was hit by the suicide car have been killed," he said. "This was a suicide attack. The person in the car that carried out the act has been torn into pieces."

[Cloudy]

In Afghanistan, Danger Still Stalks Women
Run Date: 06/10/05
By Juliette Terzieff
WeNews correspondent

In Afghanistan, a young woman's murder leaves police wondering if the motive was political reprisal or a relative who thought she had dishonored the family. Either way, onlookers say the murder underscores the dangers of a being a woman there.

Shaima Rezayee

(WOMENSENEWS)--Until this past March, Shaima Rezayee was a co-host of Kabul's No. 1 television show "Hop," an hour-long program of foreign music videos introduced by hip young presenters.

In that spotlight, she had the kind of national recognition enjoyed by few Afghan women, which she said allowed her to set an example for women across the country.

On May 19, the 24-year old was discovered shot in her home. It didn't exactly shock the country. Only weeks after the show's premier in the fall of 2004, Rezayee and her co-host Shakeb Isaar began receiving death threats.

Aired on Afghanistan's first independent station Tolo TV, which boasts an 81 percent share of the Kabul viewing market, "Hop" has been wildly divisive. While drawing cheers from younger information-starved urbanites, conservatives in the country made dire pronouncements about the show's contaminating effects on the culture.

In March, Rezayee was sacked after the country's Supreme Court characterized the show as "un-Islamic." Although the court did not order her removal, the station managers fired her in an attempt to address the court's concerns.

Initially the murder investigation focused on vengeful conservatives, but Kabul police later said Rezayee's family may have been involved in carrying out an "honor killing" because the TV personality had not only worked with men outside her family, but had appeared on air, joking and laughing with her co-host.

The murder investigation is still open.

For many, Rezayee's death is sufficient proof that Afghan women take on grave risks when they battle social convention in a country still heavily influenced by the Taliban.

http://www.womensenews.com/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2330

[Marine]

Foreign national involved in Kandahar attack: Ludin
By Lailuma Sadid
KABUL, June 14 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Presidential spokesman Javid Ludin Tuesday claimed a suicide bomber who crashed his explosive-packed car into US military convoy in Kandahar was a foreign national.

Addressing a news conference here, Ludin said four American soldiers were wounded in Monday's suicide bombing on the Kandahar-Herat Highway. He tended to reject reports five Americans had been killed in the assault.

Taliban spokesman Lutfullah Hakimi, in phone calls to wire services soon after the incident, claimed 10 soldiers had been killed and several wounded in the blast. He had said the perpetrator, Mulla Juma Khan, was a member of the ousted Taliban movement and a resident of the Kandahar province.

Ludin insisted the attacker was a foreign national and probably a member of a foreign group. Without naming the country of their origin, Ludin alleged the terrorists were out to disrupt the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for mid-September.

He hastened to renew Kabul's resolve: "The government will not bow to such elements and security will be ensured at all costs."

Commenting on Hamid Karzai's trip to Tajikistan, Ludin hoped the president would soon visit that country. US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad would accompany Karzai, he added.

According to an earlier schedule, the Afghan president was to leave for Tajikistan on Monday to inaugurate the Amo Bridge construction, but his visit was set back on medical grounds.

[ghostgovt]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/st...1506486,00.html

Kabul faces cholera outbreak

Associated Press in Kabul
Wednesday June 15, 2005
The Guardian

Kabul is on the verge of a cholera epidemic, with at least eight people dying in the past fortnight and more than 2,000 cases detected, a health expert in the Afghan capital said yesterday.

The government disputed the numbers and said it had the situation under control.

"An epidemic is about to break out here. Over 2,000 cases have been reported so far that would meet the case definition of cholera," said Fred Hartman, an epidemiologist and technical director for a US aid programme, the Rural Expansion of Afghanistan's Community-based Health Care.

[Marine]

Afghan election: EC, UNDP sign 11.5m euro accord
By Najibullah Khilwatgar
KABUL, June 15 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The European Commission and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Wednesday signed an 11.5 million euro agreement on organising parliamentary elections in Afghanistan.

The European Commission office in Kabul said 8.5 million euros would be spent on holding the elections while the rest of the amount would be used for legislative matters under the SEAL project.

An EC statement issued here hoped the three million euros project would help upgrade the human resource-building capacity of the legislature, supply of the communication technology to parliament and implement an effective public awareness system.

The budget required for the September 18 elections is estimated at more than $148 million, of which only $50 million have been arranged so far, according to the Afghan-UN electoral body.

While signing the agreement, UNDP representative Fredrik Lunis and Joan Fanswa Kotin of the European Commission reiterated their vow to support the democratic process in Afghanistan.

"The EC wants to make clear to Afghans that it still supports democratic fundamentals of Afghanistan, such as a parliamentary system, in close collaboration with EU members and the UN," Fanswa Kotin said.

[Marine]

Khalilzad assures Afghanistan of continued US help
By Habibur Rehman Ibrahimi
KABUL, June 15 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Outgoing US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad has assured American assistance to Afghanistan will remain unaffected by his departure for Iraq to take up his new diplomatic assignment there.

Khalilzad held out the assurance during a call on Afghan Supreme Court Chief Justice Fazal Hadi Shinwari at the latter's office here on Wednesday. The diplomat pledged continued American support to Afghanistan.

In an exclusive chat with Pajhwok Afghan News, senior Supreme Court official Dr. Abdul Malik Kamavi said the chief justice had invited Khalilzad, whose ambassadorial tenure formally came to an end on Wednesday, to a farewell party.

"The main objective behind the meeting was to seek unhindered US aid flows and support for the transfer of Afghan prisoners from Guantanamo Bay and release of those compatriots held in Iraq on charges of having links to the al-Qaeda network," Kamavi said.

On the occasion, President George Bush's special envoy - who also met Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak earlier in the day - reiterated America's all-out cooperation with the war-battered country would go on even after he left the country.

It will be pertinent to recall the Afghan chief justice, soon after news of the ambassador's transfer to Iraq broke some months back, wrote to President Bush a letter urging an extension of Khalilzad's stay in Kabul till parliamentary elections slated mid-September.

A number of Afghan prisoners have already been freed from US-controlled detention facilities in Afghanistan and Cuba in the wake of joint efforts by Zalmay Khalilzad and Fazal Hadi Shinwari.

An Afghan by origin who speaks fluent Arabic, Khalilzad was named as President Bush's special envoy to Afghanistan in September 2003.


Translated & edited by Mudassir

[Marine]

2,000 extra peacekeepers to secure Afghan polls
By Ahmad Khalid Mowahid
KABUL, June 15 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The NATO-led international peacekeeping force announced on Wednesday that 2,000 more troops would be deployed in different cities of in Afghanistan to secure upcoming parliamentary polls.

A spokeswoman for the 8,300-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said a Dutch battalion would be stationed in Mazar-i-Sharif in the north, one from Romania in Kabul and another from Spain in the western city of Herat.

The first battalion will arrive in Afghanistan, where insurgents have lately stepped up attacks on government and foreign forces, by the end of the current month.

"Over two thousand additional ISAF troops will be brought in as an Election-Support Force," Major Karen Tissot Van Patot told a press conference here. The first post-Taliban parliamentary polls, twice delayed, are now slated for mid-September.

Meanwhile, the US-led coalition forces said they were also mulling deploying extra troops outside Afghanistan, if needed, to boost security for the elections opposed by Taliban.

The Afghan government and international troops are struggling to secure the September 18 legislative elections as members of the ousted Taliban regime have vowed to disrupt it.

[ghostgovt]

http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0...60584150927.htm

Islamabad, June 16, IRNA

Pakistan-Afghanistan

Two tribes, one from Pakistan and the other from Afghanistan, fought a fierce battle over a piece of land on the Pak-Afghan border.

Daily Times reported in its Thursday issue that the two sides traded heavy weapons from mountain peaks across the border. The daily added a ceasefire could not hold between Pakistan's Madakhel tribe and Afghan Tarni tribe.

The newspaper was silent on the loss of life or property.

Pakistani tribe accused the Afghans of trying to seize their land, it added.

[Acebass]

Osama Bin Laden is alive and well: Taliban commander Wed Jun 15, 2:36 PM ET



ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar are both alive and in good health after more than three years on the run, a senior Taliban commander said in a television interview.


"He is absolutely fine, praise be to Allah," Mullah Akhtar Usmani said when asked about bin Laden's fate in the interview broadcast by Pakistan's private GEO television.

"There is no problem, but I will not tell where he is," he added Wednesday.

One-eyed Taliban supremo Mullah Omar remained in command of the hardline Islamic militia which formerly ruled Afghanistan, added Usmani. The militants have launched a fresh onslaught in recent months against the US-led forces who ousted them in late 2001.

The commander, said to be Omar's former deputy and now the head of Taliban operations, held a Kalashnikov assault rifle and partly covered his face with a black turban during the interview.

Omar was "alive and healthy and there is no trouble," Usmani said, adding: "He is still our commander and issuing directions."

"I would not tell whether or not I have met him, but I listen to his voice. He gives us directions," he said.

Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi confirmed that Usmani was close to the militia's leader and that he had given the interview. "We confirm and support the details of what he said," he told AFP.

Bin Laden and other wanted Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders are thought to be hiding in the rugged tribal areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

His health has been the subject of speculation amid reports that he was suffering from kidney disease. However, in a video aired late last year before the US presidential election he appeared to be in good condition.

Bin Laden has a 25-million-dollar US bounty on his head while Washington has offered 10 million for the capture of Omar for his role in sheltering Al-Qaeda before and after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attacks which killed about 3,000 people.

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf said Tuesday during a visit to Australia that bin Laden was alive, while Zalmay Khalilzad, the outgoing US ambassador to Kabul, said he was disappointed the Saudi had not been captured.

The Afghan government has accused the Taliban and Al-Qaeda of jointly mounting a concerted offensive to disrupt legislative elections due to be held on September 18.

Usmani said he was in constant contact with the military and political leadership of the Taliban, adding that they hold regular meetings.

"There are regular meetings but Mullah Omar does not attend. For decisions, contacts are made with him," Usmani said.

The toppled regime had lost around 400 to 500 men since late 2001, Usmani said, but it was still active in all parts of Afghanistan, particularly in eastern, southern and southwestern provinces.

He added that "80 percent of the Afghan people are with us. They were not with us earlier, but having seen the atrocities by the US they have come to know that America is our enemy."

Pakistani journalist Nazir Leghari, who interviewed Usmani, said that while being taken to meet him he was blindfolded after reaching the northwestern city of Peshawar and did not know where it was carried out.

Violence linked to the Taliban continues to blight Afghanistan.

Suspected Taliban militants killed a doctor and six medical attendants on Tuesday in the southeast, while two people died in a landmine blast and a police chief's bodyguard was killed by a roadside bomb on the same day.

At least seven alleged Taliban were killed and 10 were injured in an operation by Afghan soldiers in the southern province of Kandahar, also on Tuesday.

Eight US soldiers have been wounded this week in attacks blamed on the toppled regime, four of them by a suicide car bomber in Kandahar on Monday. The United States leads a coalition of 18,000 troops in Afghanistan.

[Acebass]

Now who ya gonna believe?


Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar not in Afghanistan: US envoy Thu Jun 16, 5:11 AM ET



KABUL (AFP) - Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar are not in Afghanistan, the US ambassador said a day after a top Taliban commander said the pair were alive and well.

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"Mullah Omar is not in Afghanistan. I do not believe that Osama is in Afghanistan," envoy Zalmay Khalilzad told a press conference Thursday.

Khalilzad did not say where the two were thought to be hiding but added that the hunt for bin Laden continued.

"Symbolically, it is very important that he is brought to justice," he said, adding that progress had been made in the fight against the Al-Qaeda network, with some of its top leaders arrested and its financial capabilities weakened.

A Taliban commander, Mullah Akhtar Usmani, told Pakistan's private GEO television in an interview broadcast Wednesday that bin Laden was alive and well, dismissing reports that he was suffering from a kidney ailment.

One-eyed Taliban supremo Mullah Omar was also in good health and remains in command of the hardline Islamic militia which formerly ruled Afghanistan, Usmani added.

The militants have launched a fresh onslaught in recent months against the US-led forces who ousted them in late 2001.

Bin Laden has a 25-million-dollar US bounty on his head while Washington has offered 10 million for the capture of Omar for his role in sheltering Al-Qaeda before and after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Bin Laden and other wanted Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders are thought to be hiding in the rugged tribal areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Usmani did not say which country bin Laden and Mullah Omar are hiding in.

[Acebass]

AP: Afghan Minister Says al-Qaida Regroups By PAUL HAVEN, Associated Press Writer
28 minutes ago



g KABUL, Afghanistan - Al-Qaida has ferried about half a dozen Arab agents into Afghanistan in the past three weeks, two of whom detonated themselves in suicide bombings in the south targeting a packed mosque and a convoy of U.S. troops, Afghanistan's defense minister said Friday.

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Rahim Wardak told The Associated Press he received intelligence that Osama bin Laden's terror group is regrouping and intends to bring Iraq-style bloodshed to Afghanistan. He also warned that the country could be in for several months of intense violence ahead of key legislative elections.

"We have gotten reports here and there that they have entered — at least half a dozen of them," Wardak said. "The last report is that they came in just close to the time of the mosque attack."

The June 1 mosque blast killed 20 mourners at the funeral of a moderate cleric assassinated days earlier. That same day, a shoulder-launched, surface-to-air missile was fired at an American aircraft but missed.

On Monday, a suicide bomber drove up to a U.S. military vehicle in Kandahar and detonated himself, wounding four American soldiers.

"It looks like there has been a regrouping of al-Qaida and they may have changed their tactics not only to concentrate on Iraq but also on Afghanistan," Wardak said over tea at his wood-paneled office next to the heavily guarded presidential compound.

Authorities recovered the head of the mosque attacker and said he appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent. Wardak said initial indications are that the second suicide attacker also was an Arab.

[ghostgovt]

http://www.kuna.net.kw/Home/Story.aspx?Lan...=en&DSNO=743947

Taliban attack govt. building in Afghanistan, take 18 policemen as hostage

By Amena Khokhar

ISLAMABAD, June 18 (KUNA) - Taliban guerrillas attacked a government building in Southern Kandahar city of Afghanistan and have taken at least 18 Afghan policemen as hostage, said an official on Saturday.

The guerrillas attacked the main government building in Mian Nashin town on Friday night and captured 18 policemen, while taking control of the whole town, a local police official, Zeryab Gul, from Kandahar told KUNA by telephone. He said the building is still in Taliban control, adding that they have lost contact with them. However, he added, efforts are underway to

[Marine]

Voter registration campaign to kick off from June 25
By Zubair Babakarkhel
KABUL, June 18 (Pajhwok Afghan News): In the run-up to the September parliamentary elections, a 26-day voter registration campaign is scheduled to get under way from June 25.

Bismillah Bismil, head of the Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB), announced on Saturday the voter registration drive would come to and end on July 20.

He urged eligible voters, who could not obtain registration cards in a similar process ahead of last year's presidential ballot, would be issued the documents this time around.

Addressing a crowded news conference here, the poll panel chief explained Afghans already registered as voters in their native provinces need not get listed anew for the first post-Taliban elections.

However, Bismil suggested those listed outside their native provinces would have to get fresh registration cards. "For the parliamentary polls, it will be mandatory for voters to get registration cards in provinces of their residence."

Voter registration centres, numbering about 490, will be set up at the district level. "The creation of more centres than one in far-flung areas, or those which had small-scale representation in the presidential vote, is being pondered," he hastened to add.

Speaking on the occasion, JEMB Secretariat head Peter Erben emphasized the registration campaign as a significant step. He observed they were able to embark upon the process after a lot of hard work.

According to information obtained from the JEMB office, 80 centres will be opened in different parts of the country exclusively for registering Kochis (nomads).

The mid-September elections, vehemently opposed by Taliban, represent a formidable logistical challenge for the JEMB as well as the Afghan government headed by US-backed President Hamid Karzai.


Translated and edited by Mudassir

[Marine]

Karzai inaugurates work Amo River bridge
By Rohullah Arman & Zainab Mohammadi
KABUL, June 18 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Tajik counterpart Emamali Rahmanov Saturday jointly inaugurated construction work on the Amo River (Oxus) bridge linking the neighbouring countries.

While launching the huge project, the visiting Afghan leader hoped construction of the bridge would go a long way in boosting trade and cultural links between the two countries.

"This bridge will play a significant role in improving trade between Afghanistan and Central Asian countries; investors can boost their businesses using this opportunity," Karzai told the inaugural ceremony held in the border town of Shir Khan.

Dr Wali Mohammad Rasuli, deputy minister for public works, revealed the 630-metre-long bridge would be built in a period of 18 months. With the US providing a $30 million grant for it, the bridge would be the biggest transit route between Afghanistan and its Central Asian neighbours, he added.

Ghulam Nabi Farahi, deputy commerce minister, also believed trade in the region would witness a huge boom once "the win-win" project was executed. He was optimistic the bridge would take relations with the Central Asian states to new heights.

Afghanistan imports cars, trucks, motorbikes, soap, nickel wares and fertilizers from the former Soviet republics, which offer a huge market for dry and fresh fruits produced by the landlocked country.

After opening work on the bridge and launching a customs office at the Shir Khan Port, President Karzai and his ministerial delegation headed for Dushanbe, where he would go into an official meeting with Rahmanov.

Economic Affairs Minister Amin Farhang, Borders and Tribal Affairs Minister Abdul Karim Barahawi, Public Works Minister Suhrab Ali Safari and National Security Advisor Zalmay Rasul are accompanying the president.

Karzai was earlier scheduled to arrive in Tajikistan on Monday last, but had to set back his visit for health reasons.

[Marine]

Osama, Omar not in Afghanistan: Khalilzad
By Lailuma Sadid
KABUL, June 16 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Outgoing US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad Thursday ruled out the presence of the two most-wanted fugitives, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Taliban supremo Mullah Omar, in Afghanistan.

Addressing a farewell news conference here, the special envoy of US President George W. Bush believed the top militant leaders were no longer hiding in the landlocked country, where Afghan and coalition forces were tightening the noose around insurgents.

The al-Qaeda network had been debilitated considerably in the wake of anti-terrorism operations that led to the arrest of many of its leaders, claimed Khalilzad, who stopped short of commenting on the whereabouts of the Saudi dissident - carrying a $25 million reward on his head - and the Taliban chief.

"It's not easy tracking down one person, maybe with some helping him in a vast and inhospitable region," he observed of the relentless hunt for Osama. Spot-on intelligence inputs and wholehearted cooperation from several governments were needed to catch such a man, he stressed.

Despite the significant attrition of the terrorist organisation and progress achieved in the war on terrorism, he admitted bringing the alleged terrorist mastermind to book still had a lot of symbolical value. "Sooner or later, he will be captured," the ambassador hoped.

With regard to the situation in Afghanistan, he called upon President Hamid Karzai to pay special heed to the issue of good governance and not to spare officials defying the central government. He underlined the imperative of a lasting peace for quickening the country's reconstruction and economic stability.

Saying goodbye to his homeland, Khalilzad cited positive developments took place during his ambassadorial assignment in the strife-torn country. "Many positive changes have come about in the last two years, which give us ample cause for optimism about Afghanistan's future."

Brimming with confidence about his task in Iraq, he promised all-out efforts for putting an end to the anarchy blanketing the Gulf state. "We have to isolate those who would like to pave the ground for a civil strife in Iraq to promote their unholy agenda."

He was of the opinion the American military and its allies should devise a strategy for ending the insurgency in Iraq. "I think it is very much possible," said Khalilzad, an Afghan by origin who speaks fluent Arabic.

Dr. Khalilzad did his masters from the American University of Beirut and went on to obtain a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Having authored more than 200 books, articles and reports, he was nominated as US ambassador and President Bush's special envoy to Afghanistan on September 22, 2003.

[ghostgovt]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C02...F56DA4AD851.htm

Afghan officials killed in ambush

Sunday 19 June 2005, 15:19 Makka Time, 12:19 GMT

A police chief reportedly was executed in the Kandahar area

Suspected Taliban fighters have ambushed and killed a judge and two other officials in the latest violence to hit Afghanistan's south, a security official said.

The judge, an intelligence official and an employee in Helmand province's education department were killed as they returned home from a dinner in the Nad Ali district to Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand.

"As they were coming from a dinner party, they were ambushed and killed on their way back to Lashkar Gah," provincial security chief Amanullah told AFP.

Police chief executed

Taliban members claimed on Sunday to have executed a district police chief, who was among 13 hostages seized in a raid on a district government headquarters in southern Afghanistan, a Taliban spokesman said.

Fresh crisis



The capture of the officers is a new crisis for the authorities General Salim Khan, the deputy provincial police chief, said he had no information as to the fate of those being held. He said 13 people had been captured in all.


The capture of the men is a fresh crisis for authorities in Kandahar, the worst-hit province in a surge of violence in recent months that has raised fears for parliamentary elections, due on 16 September.


Taliban commander Mullah Rahim, who led the attacks, telephoned Reuters on Saturday night and handed the phone to Nanai Khan, who said he was going to be put on trial.


Asked if any of the group had been killed, a clearly nervous Khan initially replied: "Yes." But after a few seconds of silence on the line, he corrected himself and replied: "No, no."


The district is in the north of Kandahar province about 400km southwest of Kabul and was the scene of joint operations by Afghan and US-led forces early this week in which government officials said nine guerrillas were killed.

[Marine]

Ex-Taliban commander surrenders
By Abdul Majeed Arif
KHOST, June 20 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Former Taliban commander Saifur Rahman Sadiq, alias Safi has surrendered on Sunday in the southern Khost province.

Khost police chief Sadiq Tarakhail told Pajhwok Afghan News Safi was working under the command of Maulvi Jalaludin Haqqani – the then minister for border and tribal affairs during the Taliban era.

Safi is resident of Ismaealkhail-Mandozai district. He was commanding a unit to carry out attacks against government forces in different areas.

"Safi's name was included in the list of wanted persons but as he has surrendered, he will be considered a free man from now onward," Tarakhail added.

Regarding his other colleagues, the police chief informed he had surrendered alone but his other colleagues might follow him in the future.

Earlier, another Taliban commander Abdul Malik Zulfan had become part of the government's reconciliation efforts on May 10.