Over 1,000 Afghan soldiers flee to Tajikistan after clashes with Taliban

DUSHANBE: More than 1,000 Afghan troops have fled to Tajikistan after clashes with the Taliban.

According to a foreign news agency, Tajikistan’s National Security Committee said 1,037 Afghan soldiers fled to Tajikistan after the Taliban’s attacks. While the Tajikistan government allowed the troops into its border as a goodwill gesture.

Earlier, hundreds of Afghan troops had already entered Tajikistan due to Taliban attacks in May.

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On the other hand, Hamdullah Mohib, national security adviser to the Afghan president, said government forces were stepping up retaliation against the Taliban in the northern provinces.

“Afghan government forces did not expect Taliban attacks, but now they are also retaliating,” he said.

Taliban have claimed to have taken control dozens of districts including six districts of Badakhshan province, which shows that the Afghan forces would have to bow before them right after the NATO forces will complete their withdrawal in September.

The Afghan Taliban have said all foreign troops must leave Afghanistan by September.

Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said it was not the Taliban’s policy to detain Kabul government’s troops. He said that all forces would have to withdraw from Afghanistan by the deadline in any case and if there was any force left after that, then they would take action against it.

However, the Taliban have allowed 1,000 US troops to stay at the Kabul airport until the withdrawal completes.

Suhail Shaheen said the NGO workers and other foreign nationals were not targeted by the Taliban. “We are against foreign forces, not NGOs, workers and diplomatic staff,” he said.