Green on blue attacks - military term used for attacks by alleged members of Afghan National Security Force (ANSF) on their foreign counterparts or mentors – were initially almost neglected and efforts were made not to link planning of such attacks to Taliban.

But now that this very trend has intensified and has killed at least 51 foreign troops in Afghanistan only in the current year, concerns among US and other NATO countries have multiplied. The US has dramatically cut back interaction with Afghan forces, and halted training.

In the video conference call between President Hamid Karzai and his US counterpart Barack Obama last week, surge in the insider attacks was one of the main issues of discussion apart from establishment of a commission for implementation of strategic partnership agreement between Afghanistan and the US.

Last month President Karzai attributed insider attacks to foreign hands more specifically speaking, to spy agencies of our neighboring countries – Iran and Pakistan. However, US General John Allen, NATO commander in Afghanistan demanded intelligence evidence from Afghan government that could support the remarks by President Karzai.

With all the views and notions expressed by Afghan and NATO authorities, green on blue attacks continue taking tolls on the one hand and on the other causing huge harm to relation of and trust between international and Afghan troops which is not welcoming for the future security of this war torn country.

Green on blue attacks will be one of the top agenda of NATO meeting next month. On Thursday, September 20, British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond said that such attacks, which have killed 51 international service members this year, will be addressed at a NATO defense ministers meeting on October 9-10.

But he also suggested a wider conference on the issue where allied and Afghan experts could "come up with additional helpful approaches." This is actually the time to discuss the issue and find out ways to address it before it becomes 'very late.'

Already, there are serious concerns over the capability of ANSF to successfully defend Afghanistan on their own after the 2014. Continuation of green on blue attacks fuels such doubts. After the withdrawal of NATO forces, the Taliban sympathizers hidden in ANSF may turn towards killing Afghan soldiers or police and that will be catastrophic for Afghanistan.

Stricter measures for backgrounds checks of Afghan soldiers must be one of the viable options for US and Afghan military officials to prevent future insider attacks. But Taliban claim to have infiltrated the ANSF and it would be a difficult task to identify their sympathizers even with background checks.

The National Security Directorate (NDS) has already strongly expressed its commitment to address the issue and hopefully the efforts may deliver some fruitful result. It is yet to be seen what the upcoming conference would bring to tackle the growing insider attacks.