Taliban officials have re-started house-to-house search operations without the presence of a female attendant in Mazar-i-Sharif city of Balkh province again, local sources told Afghanistan International.
In some cases, Taliban officials have arrested residents of areas dominated by Tajik and Hazara ethnicity. According to the witnesses, in some of the houses, eight Taliban members entered the homes together.
It has been reported that the search operations are more focused in Police District 4 of Mazar-i-Sharif city.
Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban’s spokesperson, had earlier said that the group has no intention of searching houses again. However, Taliban officials confirmed that these house-to-house searches in Balkh are being conducted in coordination with the intelligence directorate and the Taliban’s army.
The search operations started after Wednesday’s explosion, in which according to the Taliban, at least six people got injured.
Taliban has always attributed such attacks to the Islamic State-Khurasan (IS-K) and has called these searches necessary in order to fight against the IS-K and collect weapons. Mujahid also claimed in the press conference that IS-K has been suppressed in Afghanistan.
