The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has contributed to the release of 10 members of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces held by the Taliban movement, the ICRC said in a press release on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st November, 2019) The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has contributed to the release of 10 members of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces held by the Taliban movement, the ICRC said in a press release on Thursday."The 10 Afghan National Security Forces members were released and handed over to the ICRC in Helmand Province, in the District of Nahr-e Saraj. We transferred them across the frontline to Lashkar Gah where we handed them over to the Afghan authorities at the governor's office," ICRC delegation chief in Afghanistan Juan Pedro Schaerer was quoted as saying in the statement.
The organization's regional head added that the Red Cross did not get involved in the process of negotiations prior to the release, but strictly facilitated the detainees' physical transfer upon the request of conflicting sides.
ICRC operations in Afghanistan include assistance to those wounded and taking them to hospitals, taking the bodies of those killed in battle to their families, helping those in captivity see or talk to their relatives and providing the rural population with safe drinking water.
Afghanistan has been suffering a prolonged confrontation between government forces and the militants of the Taliban movement, which had previously captured significant territory in rural areas of the country and launched attacks on large cities. The Afghan National Defense and Security Forces regularly conduct joint counter-terrorism operations across the country.
