ISLAMABAD: Fifty-five pro-Daesh/ISIS militants have surrendered in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province bordering Pakistan, the local administration announced on Saturday, citing the Taliban’s intelligence chief there.
According to an official statement issued from Taliban’s intelligence headquarters, 55 fighters associated with the Dai’sh terrorist group had laid down their guns there. “The surrendering militants regretted their past actions and vowed to live peacefully under the Islamic Emirate,” it added.
The statement said the head of the intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security in Nangarhar, Doctor Bashir, granted “conditional pardon” through mediation by tribal elders to these former fighters who had been carrying out destructive activities in the Kot, Spin Ghar, and Achin districts of the province.
“If anyone (among the fighters) violates (the accord) there will be strict legal actions (against them),” the statement quoted the Taliban intelligence chief as saying.
Nangarhar has been witnessing an evident spike in targeted assassinations and bomb blasts, with the pro-Daesh/ISIS militants claiming multiple attacks and the Taliban launching countering offensives against the group here.
Last week, another batch of 65 militants had surrendered in the same province. Earlier this month, the Taliban claimed dismantling a Dai’sh hideout in the capital Kabul that had been blamed for many attacks.
Days later, that the terror group claimed a massive suicide bombing in Kandahar, besides orchestrating targeted killings in Nangarhar and Parwan provinces and another major suicide bombing in a Shia community mosque in the northern Kunduz province, killing more than 100 people.
