KANDAHAR: Afghan police on Sunday launched a search operation for some 30 villagers still missing two days after a mass kidnapping blamed on Taliban militants in the southern province of Kandahar.

Seventy people were abducted on Friday from their village near the main road in the south and seven of them were found dead the following day alongside the highway, from the city of Kandahar to Tarinkot in Uruzgan province.

Around 30 people have been released while 30 others remain missing, said Kandahar police spokesman Zia Durrani.

It remained unclear why the villagers were seized. But some officials suggested the Taliban had kidnapped or killed them for suspected cooperation with the Western-backed government which the militants are striving to topple.

On Sunday dozens of families from the affected area who arrived in Kandahar city blamed the insurgents for forcing them out of their villages.

“The Taliban came to our villages at midnight and accused us of supporting the government, they warned us to either leave or they will burn us and our houses,” said a woman, who was among the displaced.

The Taliban however denied involvement, while confirming they had attacked police checkpoints in the area.

“Our mujahideen killed a number of local police and pro-government militias there, also capturing 17 suspects who were later released after interrogation. We have not killed or kidnapped any civilians,” the Taliban said in a statement.

Elsewhere in the country, the Taliban on Sunday captured two district centres in northern Faryab and central Ghor provinces, officials said.

In the volatile Faryab, the insurgents overran Kohistan district centre after an overnight attack triggered hours of heavy fighting, said provincial police spokesman Abdul Karim Yourish.

He said troops had retreated two kilometres from the centre of Kohistan district. There was no word on casualties.

In the central Ghor province, militants seized Taywara district early on Sunday after days of clashes with Afghan security forces, said provincial governor spokesman Abdul Hai Khatibi.

Some local media also said that after the Taliban entered Taywarea, insurgents torched the district hospital and killed a number of doctors and patients, but provincial officials could not immediately confirm the reports.

Fighting has escalated in several northern and southern Afghan provinces in recent days, including in Helmand in the south where 16 Afghan police officers were killed by a US air strike on Friday night.

The strike, the latest setback in Washington’s efforts to pacify the country, hit a compound in Gereshk district, large parts of which are under Taliban control.

Afghan troops and police are battling largely alone on the ground against the insurgency, after US-led foreign forces withdrew from most combat operations in December 2014.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2017