Ghani instructs all security forces to target terrorist bases

President Muhammad Ashraf Ghani has ordered all security forces to eliminate all financial resources and bases of terrorist groups.

In a meeting with security officials, President Ghani has instructed all directors of National Directorate of Security (NDS) to use any facilities targeting the enemies of the country.

“President Ghani has ordered to make terrorists activity areas limited and do everything for their destruction,” Shah Hussain Murtazawi, president’s deputy spokesman said.

This comes as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani attacked Pakistan in a speech Monday for sheltering terrorist groups, threatening efforts to restart the peace process and improve ties between the two countries.

Mr. Ghani said he would complain to the United Nations Security Council unless Pakistan took action against the Taliban and other insurgencies, whose leaders he said were sheltering in Pakistani cities while orchestrating attacks on Afghanistan.

He said it was impossible to make peace with these groups, including the Taliban, al Qaeda and the Haqqani network. His comments came the week after a Taliban bombing killed more than 60 people in Kabul, one of the deadliest attacks in the city in years.

“Pakistan should no longer continue the good and bad terrorist policy. There is no difference between good and bad terrorists, all terrorists are terrorists. We expect Pakistan to act as a responsible state,” he said.

Ghani said there are “no good or bad terrorists, they are just terrorists”, and that “Pakistan must understand that and act against them.”

After a year that saw 11,000 civilian casualties and some 5,500 members of the security forces killed fighting the Taliban, the distinction may make little concrete difference to the fighting on the ground.

Over recent days, Afghan security forces have fought back Taliban attacks on Kunduz, the northern city that briefly fell to the insurgents last year.

Large parts of the southern province of Helmand are now in insurgent hands and there has been heavy fighting in several other provinces from Herat in the west to Kunar in the east.