Residents of the Nad Ali district staged a demonstration on October 6 against NATO-led troops in Lashkargah, the capital of southern Helmand province, Pajhwok Afghan News said that say.
About 100 protesters accused the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldiers of killing innocent civilians during operations in the district, PAN said. District security was recently handed to Afghan forces.
The article said: “[O]ne tribal elder claimed Afghan and foreign forces killed his son during a nighttime raid two days back.
“Haji Rahimdil insisted his son Mohammad Khan had no links to the militants and hence his inability to find any reason for the operation. Mere suspicion offered no plausible reason for such raids, he remarked.”
Another elder, Mullah Karim, told PAN the government should end night rights if it did not want to further alienate the masses.
Hundreds of residents of southeastern Paktika province also protested on October 10 a against nighttime ISAF raids, PAN said that day.
The protesters marched through the provincial capital Sharan, chanting slogans against ISAF and US soldiers.
PAN reported: “One of the organisers, Mullah Masoom, said ISAF troops raided his house a few days ago and detained two of his two family members. The foreign soldiers also arrested a moneychanger along with two sons in a similar operation, he claimed.
“A tribal elder, Momin Khan Mukhlis, condemned the operation and asked the NATO-led forces to stop conducting operations in their areas, because the security of the city had already transitioned to Afghan personnel.”