Shafiqullah Sahar, the police chief of Afghanistan's northeastern Kunar province, told Sputnik that major centers of the Islamic State terror group (banned in Russia) in the area had been demolished, adding that the security situation in the province, where the group had previously been active, was improving
KABUL (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd January, 2020) Shafiqullah Sahar, the police chief of Afghanistan's northeastern Kunar province, told Sputnik that major centers of the Islamic State terror group (banned in Russia) in the area had been demolished, adding that the security situation in the province, where the group had previously been active, was improving.
Two months ago, the terrorist organization's members were active in the Mazar valley, located in the province's Nurgal district. Sahar said the IS still operated in several areas of the province but will be eliminated there soon.
"The IS does not have any proven or permanent security center to take security measures ... We have both the IS and the Taliban in Kunar and both are our enemies ... We plan to eliminate them ... The IS is not a threat to Kunar because it has low numbers [of members] and does not have a stationary center. So wherever it appears, the Afghan forces are following them," Sahar said.
Some residents of Kunar are happy with the current security situation in the province but they sill call for a security operation to be held in relatively insecure areas.
"Our Afghan forces are now able to maintain the security of the people and the province of Kunar," an author and journalist, who introduced himself as Zhman, told Sputnik.
Sayedullah, a resident of Kunar, said that the situation in the province had improved.
"The situation is relatively calm now. Before, there was a lot of fighting in the Sirkanay district; there was shooting in the northeast; but now the situation is good," Sayedullah said.
Security sources in the neighboring Nangarhar province confirmed to Sputnik that after the defeat of the IS in Nangarhar, some terrorists left for Kunar and some other IS members crossed the Durand Line, a border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"The IS was completely defeated in Nangarhar � some were killed, some were arrested, some surrendered and some of them fled [across] the Durand Line. But few of them went to Kunar," the source said.
But the Kunar police chief denied claims that the IS terrorists had come to Kunar from Nangarhar.
Nurgal has recently been a scene of fighting between the IS and the Taliban. However, the former has not been active there for over a month. Still, local residents are concerned that if the IS' positions strengthened in Kunar, it would be difficult for the Afghan security forces to counter the terrorists since there are high mountains and extensive forests in the area.
Though Afghanistan remains one of the areas outside Iraq and Syria where the IS is still active, the group recently faced significant losses in the country. Still, according to the United Nations, there are between 2,500 and 4,000 IS members operating in Afghanistan. The group is concentrated in the country's eastern regions.
