PAKTYA PROVINCE, Afghanistan – Security forces from across eastern Afghanistan met Feb. 27 at the Paktya Governor’s compound to discuss security.
Members from diverse security organizations including: the Afghan civil order police, the Afghan border police, Afghan uniformed police and the Afghan National Army gathered with coalition force advisors to discuss the current security situation and make plans for the future.
“We must provide security to troubled districts in order to win [the people’s] hearts and minds,” said AUP Brig. Gen. Safi.
Paktya Gov. Juma Khan Hamdard shared Safi’s sentiments.
“The presence of security personnel deters the enemy and will make them think twice about committing acts of violence,” said Hamdard.
Safi noted the recent desperation demonstrated by enemy forces. Taliban and Haqqini network attacks have killed scores of innocent Afghan women and children in recent weeks. On Feb. 26, a single improvised explosive device attack killed six members of the same family.
“As the peace process continues, the enemy is killing the innocent and conducting bad activities to disrupt the peace process in the provinces,” said Safi.
Safi contrasted the indiscriminate killings perpetrated by the enemy to the careful and methodical way in which his forces gather evidence prior to making an arrest.
“We are monitoring several people, but we are not willing to arrest them without the proper evidence,” said Safi. “We know everything about them; when we have gathered all the evidence we need, we will make the arrests.”
Rule of law is a new concept in some remote areas of Afghanistan, but Afghan leaders are determined to bring the population under its sphere of influence and create greater stability throughout the country.
According to Safi, operational coordination centers are the key to organizing security forces and responding to threats. Coordination centers like the Operational Coordination Center-East organize a myriad Afghan organizations under a single umbrella in order to respond to threats or national emergencies.
“The OCCR should coordinate security agencies,” said Safi. “The OCCR is the lead. If there are any security problems, the OCCR should respond to them.”
U.S. Army Lt. Col. Michael Kelley, OCCR-East senior adviser, offered to take the concerns and suggestions of attendees to his counterparts throughout the region.
“We are working with the Ministry of Defense to increase manning at operational coordination centers throughout the region … I will take the issues discussed here to the national conference,” said Kelley.
| Date Taken: | 02.27.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 03.01.2011 13:27 |
| Story ID: | 66297 |
| Location: | PAKTYA PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 23 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Leaders meet, discuss security, by Kenneth Stewart, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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