JALALABAD - Nuristan governor Jamaluddin Badr on Thursday said border police in Kamdish district have been besieged and, with only 160 policemen, are unable to secure the province's 70-kilometre border with Pakistan. In a telephonic interview with Pajhwok Afghan News, the governor said that groups of militants had snuck into the district from Pakistan's Chitral district.
Badr lashed out at the Defence Ministry and the International Security Assistance Force for pulling out forces at the end of an operation in the troubled border region.

"If no clean-up operation is launched, I cannot say we will be able to protect the 70km long border with only 160 policemen," Badr said.
He said he had repeatedly asked the Defence Ministry and foreign troops to carry out clean-up operation against insurgents in border districts.
The government warned that border police in Kamdish were under siege by insurgents from four directions.

He said police were unable to protect the porous border and that the Defence Ministry should immediately send reinforcements.
He also asked the Defence Ministry to establish Afghan National Army (ANA) security posts on roads leading to Kamdish and Barg-i-Matal districts.

The governor said the fighting in Gordish had lasted two days. Twenty dead bodies of militants found at the scene were handed over to tribal elders, he said.
Hundreds of Taliban fighters, mostly Pakistanis, crossed the Durand Line on Tuesday and raided police outposts in the Kamdish district. In the ensuing clashes, 40 attackers and 23 policemen were killed.