At least 50 suspects were arrested for links with the Taliban and involvement in terrorist activities during operations by the National Directorate of Security (NDS) personnel in Kabul, Kandahar and Helmand provinces.

One of the operations was conducted in Deh Sabz district in Kabul on Friday evening in which at least 10 suspects were arrested.

Deh Sabz residents welcomed the move and vowed more cooperation with security forces.

“We are cooperating with the security forces because we are living in peace due to their efforts,” said Zabiullah, a Deh Sabz resident.

“We are happy from the security forces and we hope they will always patrol the [Bakhtiyari] village [where the operation was conducted],” said Abdul Matin, a Deh Sabz resident.

Local officials said that at least 40 suspects were arrested in Kandahar and Helmand province and that most of them were arrested when they were trying to enter Afghanistan through the Durand Line.

“Among this group of 40 suspects, we have people from Kandahar, Uruzgan, Helmand, Zabul, Ghazni, Badghis, Herat, Jawzjan, Paktia and Maidan Wardak provinces,” the Kandahar governor Hayatullah Hayat said.

“We arrested some individual who had no links with clashes in Kandahar. For instance, one of the suspects says that he was [the Taliban’s designated] deputy chief of intelligence,” said Gen. Barakatullah Samkanai, head of the NDS office in Kandahar.

Kandahar residents said such operations are needed to improve the security of the southern provinces.

“We call on judicial organizations to persuade their duties with honesty and implement the law on terrorists,” said Ghulam Reza, a Kandahar resident.

“Security is not good after the death of [former Kandahar police chief Gen. Abdul] Raziq, because we see many illegal gunmen in the city [of Kandahar]. It is wrong that they are released after they are arrested [by security forces],” said Eid Mohammad, a Kandahar resident.