President Ashraf Ghani on Thursday said he has accepted the resignation of the head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), Mohammad Masoom Stanikzai.

Mr. Ghani said in a tweet that “as a responsible state, we have zero tolerance for civilian casualties.”

“I have regretfully accepted the resignation of NDS chief, Mr. Stanikzai who had had success in other areas of his work,” Ghani said.

Ghani said he had an emergency meeting with the security chiefs as well as Chief Justice and the Attorney General.

“The tragic incident in Jalalabad occurred despite previous assurances and changes in guidelines vis-a-vis security and search operations,” he said.

The operation was launched at around 12 pm on Wednesday on a house in PD4 of Jalalabad city by NDS’s 02 Unit, the provincial governor's spokesman Attaullah Khoghyani said.

“The governor has shared the incident with the NDS and other organizations and has asked the president to send a high-ranking delegation to Nangarhar to investigate the incident,” Mr. Khoghyani said.

The residents said the victims were “innocent people” who were killed during the operation.

But the NDS said that “Qari Jahanzeb, Daesh’s financial head were killed during the operation.”

Qazi Qadir Sediqqi, a legal advisor to Senate, Bahadir Zakhilwal, a lawyer, Jahanzeb Zakhilwal and Saboor Zakhilwal, were money changers were the victims of the incident, according to local sources.