Tuesday, November 27, 2018
Kabul (BNA) Deputy Minister of security for interior Akhtar Ibrahimi has stressed that peaceful demonstrations were the right of every Afghan citizen but peaceful demonstrations should not be used as device for violence and harming public infrastructures.
Speaking to journalists in a news conference yesterday, deputy minister of interior for security Akhtar Ibrahimi called on protesters to let the Afghan legal and judicial institutions determine the fate of local commander Alipoor.
He said that judicial institutions need to determine whether Alipoor is innocent or guilty after allegations were lodged against him that include harassment of people and other suspected illegal activities.
Ibrahimi also said some individuals among protestors broke the law on Sunday by rioting.
He repeatedly rejected claims that police opened fire using live rounds and said” “Live ammunition was not used against the demonstrators on Sunday in Kabul.”
He also stated that no one had been killed in Sunday’s street battle or on Monday in Kabul but that 48 security force members had been wounded.
According to Ibrahimi, Ali Poor, also known as Commander Shamsheer, has a group of about 350 illegal- armed commander him and that he is currently being detained by the National Directorate of Security (NDS). Meanwhile, the Army Chief of Staff Gen. Sharif Yaftali also addressed the press conference and called on protestors to avoid harming government and military installations.
He said that torching check posts or disrupting peace is not acceptable and all Afghans must abide by the law. “Resorting to violence is not a positive step.
Attacking military and government installations should be avoided.”
Yaftali said Kabul belongs to “our great nation, not a specific ethnicity, people here want rule of law, stability and protection. But a suspect and criminal does not belong to any ethnicity whether Pashtun, Tajik or Hazara”.
Supporters of local commander Alipoor have been protesting against his arrest for the past two days. Sunday’s demonstration turned violent however when protesters reportedly started stoning police.
Soon after Alippor’s arrest on Sunday, his supporters took to the street in the Dasht-e-Barchi area in Kabul in protest over the NDS’s actions. It is worth mentioning that a number of police check posts and vehicles were set to fire in the area during the two days’ demonstrations.
