Women, children of surrendered Daesh fighters handed over to Pakistani relatives

Said Nazir 

PESHAWAR: The women and children of Daesh fighters from merged tribal district, who have surrendered to the government in Nangarhar province of Afghanistan, have been handed over to their families by the Afghan government.

In a video released by the official media centre of the Nangarhar government, it can be seen that Pakistani relatives have come to receive the women and children of Daesh militant group fighters. The video states that a centre for families of surrendered Daesh fighters was formed in Jalalabad city where they were provided all facilities. It says that the legitimate 50 women and 76 children of Daesh fighters were to be handed over to their Pakistani relatives on Thursday after verification.

Afghan officials say the women and children coming from Afghanistan hail from Tirah Valley, Orakzai, Bajaur and Peshawar. An elderly person in the video says he has come to receive three women and four children of his family. He says these women had gone to Afghanistan five years ago.

Afghan officials claim that thousands of Daesh fighters had come to Afghanistan from tribal districts of Pakistan and they also brought their wives and children later. They were living in areas under the control of the militant group in Nangarhar.

Malik Usman, a tribal elder from Jalalabad, told this scribe after a Jirga women and children will only be handed over to their family members from Pakistan.

In November 2019, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had announced in Jalalabad that the family members of the fighters will be handed over to their Pakistani relatives through a tribal Jirga.

Afghan officials had claimed in November that over 1,300 Daesh fighters have surrendered. In August 2016, the Nato and US forces chief in Afghanistan General John Nicholson had claimed that 70 percent Daesh fighters were Pakistanis. General Nicholson claimed that these fighters were previously associated with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), but after Operation Zarb-e-Azb in tribal districts, the TTP militants were driven out from Pakistan and they joined Daesh in Afghanistan.

Nangarhar was considered to be a stronghold of Daesh fighters. After losing control of the province, now the fighters of the militant group are surrendering to the Afghan government. However, some fighters are still based in the remote mountains of Achin district.