In the latest development in Afghanistan, several gunmen attacked and assassinated a high-ranking Taliban official of the Herat province water supply department in western Afghanistan
As a result of an attack by armed men on a vehicle carrying employees of the water supply department of Herat, 3 people, including Nadir Kakar, the head of this department, were killed and 4 others were injured.
The employees were travelling in their car when the attack took place. A security source in Herat province says that this incident occurred in the 15th district of Herat city around 8 o’clock on Wednesday (March 8) morning.
A Taliban security official in Herat, who did not want to be named, said: “The attack occurred when the head of water supply in Herat province and his employees were on their way to their office in their car.”
The Taliban sources refused to give further details and said that investigations have started to ascertain the nature and cause of the incident. Eyewitnesses confirmed the killing of three people in the area.
In another incident, a joint operation by the forces of the Ministry of Interior and the (888) unit of the Balkh Police Command killed 8 people on charges of rebellion and kidnapping.
Officials of the Balkh Province Police Command say that 8 people were killed and two Taliban members were also injured in this attack. Mohammad Asif Waziri, the spokesman of the Balkh Province Police Command, said that the operation started at eleven o’clock last night (Wednesday ) in the seventh security zone of Mazar-e-Sharif and ended after two and a half hours of fighting.
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According to the officials, some weapons were also recovered from these people. A source says that these people are members of the resistance group against the Taliban.
There are various anti-Taliban groups currently operational in Afghanistan who have started a low-level insurgency against the Taliban. In December 2022, there were reports about intensive fighting between the Taliban and the forces of the NRF(National Resistance Front ) in the Andarab region of the southern part of Baghlan Province.
Apart from NRF, other groups which have emerged post the ‘fall of Kabul’ include the Afghanistan Freedom Front, which claims to have a presence in all 34 provinces, and the Afghanistan Islamic National and Liberation Movement, a group comprising of former security officers of the earlier republic.
Other smaller groups like the Soldiers of Hazaristan, Freedom Corps, and the Liberation Front of Afghanistan also have little presence in Afghanistan.