April 18, 2014 

Around 300 Laghman residents launched armed campaign against the Taliban militants in Alingar district.

The provincial government media office following a statement said the around 20 villages were cleared from the Taliban militants’ presence.

The statement further added that the public uprising was led by a local tribal elder Noor Pashayewal.

Dara-e-Noor Lam Sahib, Parwai, Pariana, Jabar Khel and Mandal villages were cleared from the presence of Afghan and Pakistani Taliban militants, the statement added.

Local officials said Alingar residents launched campaign against Taliban militants after they started creating problems for the implementation of public welfare projects and prevented children from attending school.

This comes as hundreds of Nangarhar province launched public uprisal against the Taliban militants in Hesarak district on Tuesday.

Laghman is among the relatively volatile provinces in eastern Afghanistan where Taliban militants are active in a number of districts and frequently carry out insurgency attacks.

At least seven Taliban militants were killed and six others were arrested during military operations by Afghan security forces in the past 24 hours.

The operations were conducted by Afghan national police in cooperation with the Afghan national army and Afghan intelligence – National Directorate of Security (NDS) operatives, interior ministry said following a statement.

The statement further added that the operations were conducted in Kabul, Nangarhar, Laghman, Kandahar, Maidan Wardak, Logar and Paktia provinces.

Interior ministry said Afghan national security forces also confiscated various types of weapons and explosives during the operations.

Afghan national police forces discovered and seized 29 improvised explosive device (IED) during operations in Helmand, Kandahar, Laghman and Nangarhar provinces, the statement added.

Interior ministry said the improvised explosive devices were recently planted by Taliban militants to carry out insurgency attacks.

  NANGARHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - "Professionalism is very key," said U.S Army Lt. Col. Andrew Pekala, commander, Security Forces Advisory and Assistance Team Blue, 4th Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, Task Force Patriot. "If they're a professional force, they gain respect; people will want to call them."

Recent and upcoming collaborative efforts between U.S and Afghan forces aim to enhance public perception of the Afghan Border Police's capabilities within the community. Pekala, of Edgewood, Md., and his team work with the ABP in Zone 1, which is comprised of eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar, Nuristan and Kunar provinces.

The U.S Congress sent a team of analysts to survey various government agencies and operations in Afghanistan in order to determine how American forces can better assist their counterparts in the future.

Jerry Meyerle, senior research analyst, CNA's Center for Strategic Studies, met with high-ranking ABP Zone 1 officials and SFAAT Blue team members at Forward Operating Base Fenty, Aug. 16 and 17.

"The United States Congress has asked us to come here and learn about the security situations that you face," Meyerle said to the ABP officials gathered. "[This way] they can better understand the capabilities that you will need in the upcoming years."

To this end, Meyerle asked the assembled Afghans what is necessary to prevent their country from ever again becoming a safe haven for enemies of Afghanistan and the global community.

Achieving and maintaining stable supply routes for remote outposts, safeguarding resources, and protecting the Afghanistan-Pakistan border are Zone 1's primary concerns, said Afghan Col. Wali Khan, commander, ABP Zone 1.

The border, or the Durand Line, has been disputed for more than a century, and Highway 7, the main economic corridor for the region, cuts right through Zone 1. Protecting this trade route is a key part of the ABP's mission.

Additionally, the ABP work hand-in-hand with other government agencies to ensure the community is crime-free, an undertaking with its own concerns. Addressing each of these concerns - both at the border and in the community - will not only allow the ABP to accomplish its mission, but also encourage the people to see the police as reliable and professional public servants.

Conquering this first hurdle is about getting both Afghans and Pakistanis to the table, Pekala said. Many of the grievances at the border are culturally based; once a discussion begins, however, that's half the battle won.

Going forward, the police's response to crime is changing as well.

The ABP in Zone 1 are very capable, said Pekala, but they've acted more as a military-style organization than a police force to this point. Going forward, their focus will move toward crime detection, investigation and deterrence, changing their role in the community.

In order for this change to be successful, other branches of the government, particularly the judicial and legal ministries, must develop simultaneously.

"We cannot just sit around and wait for one effort to get to maturity and then start working on the next one," Pekala said. "We've got to kind of work together on a parallel route."

This combined effort to move the Afghan Border Police and its sister agencies in the right direction is complex, but with care, Pekala said, spreading the perception of the ABP's professionalism is an achievable task.

NANGARHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan  -- Police in Nangarhar province, with advice from their International Security Assistance Force counterparts, prepared to ensure its residents will be able to vote safely in Afghanistan's national election this spring.

Lt. Col. Andrew Pekala, Task Force Patriot's senior police adviser, made one of his weekly visits to talk to his counterpart at the provincial chief of police's office, Jan. 2.

Nangarhar's important strategic location along the road to Kabul, and its traditionally restive nature, make security a top priority. A safe population that is confident they will be able to vote without fear of violence is vital to the credibility of the Afghan overall election. 

"Here in Nangarhar the provincial headquarters has an expanded role, they are a type A PHQ, meaning they are an overarching regional police headquarters for North of Kabul," explained Pekala. "So the other police headquarters [in North of Kabul] feed into Nangarhar's headquarters, who then feeds that information up to the Ministry of Interior."

As Nangarhar Province and Afghanistan as a whole draw closer to elections, these advising visits between Pekala, his team and their Afghan Uniform Police counterparts, specifically with the regional chief of police, or the RCOP, are becoming more important. Afghanistan's police will lead the effort in securing voting locations and voters.

"Our advising efforts lately have really been focused on getting the RCOP and the rest of his staff focused on securing the elections and focusing them on specific operations that ensure the population's security for the elections," said Pekala.

The RCOP had already began planning for the upcoming election. 

"We've categorized the areas," said Afghan Col. Amir Khan Liwal, administrative officer, Nangarhar Regional Headquarters. "There are some areas that will have no voting; then the other areas are broken down into high, medium and low threat areas [throughout the province]."

This categorizing will determine the strength of force needed for each polling site. In the mean time, the police are conducting operations to lower the threat prior to elections.

The preparation done for the elections is the sum of multiple of Afghan National Security Forces elements working together.

"The Afghan Local Police personnel are playing a big role and we have good coordination with them and we hope they'll help out during election to bring peace and stability to the area," said Liwal.

Many local leaders want Afghans to take part in the elections without fear. Liwal calls on them to support the process and their local police leading up to and during the 2014 elections.

"Please participate and vote during the elections and help support the security forces," said Liwal.

  At least 14 insurgents were killed and nine others injured during a series of coordinated operations conducted by Afghan forces over the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Interior Affairs (MoIA) announced on Saturday.

Six others were said to have been arrested in the operations.

In a statement released by the MoIA, "the Afghan National Police (ANP), Afghan National Army (ANA) and the National Directorate of Security (NDS), conducted several anti-terrorism joint operations in Paktika, Kandahar, Logar, and Ghazni provinces."

The MoIA did not provide details about Afghan forces' casualties during the raids. And self-identified Taliban spokespeople have not yet commented on the operations.

The statement read that "during these operations, ANP discovered and confiscated light and heavy rounds of ammunition and IEDs."

Afghan and foreign officials have praised the Afghan security forces for their resilient responsibility during last Saturday's elections. With barely any violence around the country -on a day the Taliban had promised to attack officials, voters and polling sites- the reinforcements distributed nationwide and with additional precautionary measures taken by the security forces have paid off.

There are over 350,000 Afghan soldiers serving in the ANA at the moment, with thousands more in the academy. Some fresh recruits, not yet out of training, were reportedly deployed on Saturday to boost military presence in certain areas.

  U.S Army Sgt. Erik Wery, Section 4 Headquarters Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, rides in the back of a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle during a convoy to the Afghan Border Police Zone One, on Jalalabad Airfield, Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, Aug. 21, 2013. Wery was assigned to a group of Soldiers known as Guardian Angels, that serve as personal security for high ranking officials. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Vang Seng Thao/FOUO)