The meeting of President Ghani with the officers of military was much important. The meeting was attended by a number of important officers of Afghan National Army and Police. President listened to the demands of top brass of military and police and vowed that after this, no kind of relaxation will be given to the terrorists who have killed or injured the security forces of the country. Similarly, the president ensured his complete support for the security forces of the country with a vow to equip them with all the needed equipment and making all the efforts to bring them to the level of an advanced army.

We witnessed a number of events during the tenure of last president Hamid Karzai when a number of terrorists were released under a number of excuses. These releases gave birth to a number of complications. It was demoralizing for the security forces who had caught these terrorists after valuable sacrifices. The release was like ignoring their efforts and sacrifices. There were some hidden and open voices against these releases by the soldiers and officers. Similarly, the civil society also arranged a number of demonstration against these releases. It was also confirmed that a number of these released terrorists had joined the lines of terrorists and started again their functionality against the state forces. It simply meant that our forces had to work once again to catch or kill those who were once caught by our forces.

It was also the practice of ex-president Karzai to decrease the sentences of prisoners on a number of occasions like Eid, New Afghan Year and others. Such a pardon from the head of state is not something out of routine and such practice is seen in a number of other countries but terrorists and state enemies are not given any kind of relaxation in such pardons. However, such a pardon in our country applies equally to all. There were also reports that a number of dangerous terrorists were released in the darkness of night, without any kind of legal or judicial prosecution. These dangerous terrorists were also reported to have strong links in the cabinet and parliament of the country.

However, majority of these releases were done on the recommendations of High Peace Council (HPC) as a part of their efforts to build trust. According to HPC, in order to bring Taliban on the table of negotiations and win their trust, it was necessary to give them a positive signal and establish trust between them. It was also said that Pakistani government had also asked the release of a number of terrorists. However, it is fact that these releases have failed to bring any kind of breakthrough in the peace talks and the process of peace talks is as fruitless as it was in the last 12 years of democratic government. Taliban have not only agreed to do any kind of cooperation with either Afghan or Pakistani government for the promotion of peace and security in Afghanistan but they have continuously increased in their demand with the progress of peace talks. It simply meant that these releases failed to address their sole purpose and it can be called the failure of the vision of government. At the same time, it was a dangerous move of government to release into society the terrorists who can be very dangerous to the mere existence of the society.

Although the present unity government has also expressed its deep desire to hold talks with Taliban and other groups but it has been made clear that such peace talks would always be held without any unfair condition and the release of Taliban will not be taken as an option to be acceptable for the resumption of trust and peace talks.

President Ghani also expressed his support for meeting the needs of the security forces so that they should be able to function properly and ensure the security of the country from all the internal and external threats. This important decision of the president was much needed as due to the release of terrorists, the security forces had become demoralized. There were also reports that large number of police forces of Maidan Wardak province had threatened to leave the force if their salaries were not raised. They had complained that instead of increasing, their salaries had been decreased and it was not able to meet their needs. In the same way, there are also complaints from the lower staff of police force that they are not given their promised benefits. Now that the president has assured his personal interest in solving the problems of security forces, we can hope that their fair demands would be met. As the summer gets closer, we are in fear of increased insurgency and terrorism in different parts of the country and our forces must be given absolute support to be successful in this war against terror.

In the last months, the civil society arranged a number of demonstrations to express their support for the security forces and laud their efforts and sacrifices. In this meeting, the government has also expressed its unconditional support for the security forces and we can hope that our forces would be able to perform their best in the protection of the borders and civilians of the country.