Taliban Abduct 4 Tajik Police İn North Afghanistan

Taliban militants have kidnapped four Tajik border police in Afghanistan's Kunduz province, near the border with Tajikistan.



Said Sarvar Husaini, spokesman of security chief of Kunduz province told Anadolu Agency that Tajik police entered Imam Sahib district in the northern part of Kunduz province without permission to cut trees, and militants kidnapped them.



Husaini said a rescue operation was being conducted for the police officers.



Meanwhile, Amanuddin Quraishi, governor of Imam Sahib district, demanded that some of the arrested Taliban militants be released in exchange for the Tajik border police.



The Taliban intensified their terrorist activity after the Afghan government signed a Bilateral Security Agreement with the United States, and later inked the same pact with NATO.



NATO and the U.S. are preparing to withdraw combat forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, having concluded a 13-year bloody war against Taliban insurgents.



The U.S. will keep an additional 1,000 soldiers in Afghanistan next year, bringing the number of its residual troops to 10,800.



Afghan chief executive Abdullah Abdullah has warned western troops against leaving Afghanistan prematurely.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Kunduz