Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) and Pakistan’s Intelligence Service (ISI) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that will see both countries working closely together to fight terror, officials have confirmed.

Based on the agreement, ISI will also train and equip the NDS. In addition, Afghanistan and Pakistan will each fight terrorism and both institutions will investigate accused individuals behind any terror incident within their respective countries. The MoU was signed by the first deputy of the NDS with Pakistan a few days ago, sources told TOLOnews.

“The memorandum of understanding between Afghanistan and Pakistan is not a new thing. In the past, both institutions had such agreements, but now the focus of this agreement is mostly on jointly fighting terrorism,” says Ajmal Abedi, President Ashraf Ghani’s spokesman.

However, officials from the previous government told TOLOnews that no such MoU was signed in the past.

Abedi meanwhile said that Afghanistan and Pakistan both face similar security threats.

“Afghanistan has a proactive policy now, and both countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan, now understand that they have to jointly fight terrorism because both countries are suffering from this security threat,” said Abedi.

The ISI Director has visited Kabul twice in the past 10 days. Once with the Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and once on his own.

In the past 13 years, fingers have often been pointed at ISI – accusing them of orchestrating attacks in Afghanistan. But since the creation of the National Unity Government (NUG), the strategy of government has changed and in recent times Pakistan has emphasized that it is a friend of Afghanistan and will support the country in its quest for peace.

Reports suggest that Afghan government is issuing political passports to Taliban.

Hasht-e-Subh newspaper, a reliable Afghan media outlet reports that the government is issuing 210 political passports to Taliban leaders.

The media outlet quoting a source states that during the recent visit of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif to Kabul it was agreed that some of the Taliban leaders need to be removed from the blacklist of the United Nations and reopening their political office.

Source is saying that currently 180 Taliban leaders are using Pakistani passports but government will change their Pakistani passports to Afghan passports.

He is further saying that 210 Taliban leaders are scheduled to receive Afghan political passports.

Representatives of Taliban and peacemakers from the country recently had face-to-face talks in Qatar in which considerable improvement for initiating peace talks were being reported.

Taliban staged an insurgency in Afghanistan after their government was toppled in 2001.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed since then in Afghan war.

Local officials in western Ghor province on Saturday said that more than 100 insurgents were killed in clashes in Charsada district in the past six days.

Sayed Anwar Rahmati, the provincial acting governor said that Charsada is no longer in the hands of insurgents – following a six day battle by the national security forces to regain control. However, the bodies of numerous insurgents still litter the battle field, said Rahmati.

“In this operation 100 insurgents were killed, 30 injured and 50 of them were arrested. The security forces also seized weapons. In addition eight security force members were killed during the operation,” Rahmati said.

Military officials of 207 Zafar military corps said that insurgents were killed by ground troops and air strikes.

“We are saying to insurgents that we will kill insurgents in any way. Our message to them is to hand over weapons and join the peace process otherwise they will be killed,” Gen. Mahauddin Ghori, commander in chief of 207 Zafar military corps said.

This comes after Taliban insurgents attacked and took control of the district almost a week ago. But after heavy fighting troops regained control. It was reported earlier that police and troops had been surrounded by insurgents but once airstrikes were launched the situation was brought under control.

According to officials, this was the bloodiest attack in Ghor in the past thirteen years.

Rahmati said that the Taliban also robbed a civilian’s home and killed a civilian.

Fazul Haq Ehsan, the provincial council head, said that the number of security forces in the province is not enough compared to other provinces.

“If they don’t address this issue this will happen again especially as the Taliban has not been completely destroyed,” he said.

Despite security forces having regained control of the district, heavy clashes reportedly still continue in certain parts of the district, say officials.

Pakistani troops on May 15 began a “massive” offensive to try to push the Taliban from their last major stronghold in the mountainous northwestern region of North Waziristan, moving in from north and south, officials and residents said.

The heavily forested ravines of the Shawal Valley are pockmarked with Taliban hideouts and the valley itself is a key smuggling route into neighbouring Afghanistan.

Pakistani jets began bombing the valley in the early hours, killing between six and 15 militants, four intelligence sources told Reuters.

“It is a massive military action against the Taliban militants and their allies in the Shawal mountains,” said a government official who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about military operations.

The Pakistani Taliban controlled almost all of North Waziristan until troops launched a long-awaited offensive there in June. The Taliban still maintain control of Shawal Valley and have used it as a launching pad for attacks on Pakistani forces.

A spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

The Pakistani Taliban are allied with Afghan Taliban and share a similar jihadist ideology. But they operate as a separate entity, focused on toppling the Pakistani state and establishing strict Islamic rule in the nuclear-armed nation.

NATO forces, which left Afghanistan last year, repeatedly urged Pakistan to take action against Taliban havens along its border.

Residents said tanks and soldiers were approaching the valley from the north and south.

“Hundreds of trucks and pickups full of soldiers and weapons…are moving towards Shawal,” said Zainullah, a telephone operator in Shawal Valley.

“There are roadblocks everywhere, no one can come in or go out. There is a complete curfew and phones lines are also being cut.”

Several military officials told Reuters that the Pakistani military had requested help from Afghanistan to prevent militants from fleeing over the border.

Any cooperation would be a significant step forward in a thaw in relations that began when Afghan President Ashraf Ghani took office last year.

Neither the Pakistani nor the Afghan military responded to requests for comment. Government officials in the area said they were not authorized to comment.

A resident said there had been heavy fighting between the militants and the military on the edge of the valley and civilians feared being trapped.

“We are in fear, especially the kids,” he said. “We are now preparing to leave the area and shift to safe places, because last night artillery shells were fired continuously.”

Pakistani air strikes Friday killed at least 17 militants in the country’s restive tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, security officials said, part of a major operation against the Taliban.

The strikes came two days after the massacre of 45 minority Shiite Ismaili Muslims in Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi claimed by ISIS and the Taliban’s Jundullah faction which has previously reportedly allied itself to ISIS.

The air force jets targeted militants’ hideouts on the edge of the Afghan border in the thick mountainous forests in the Wareka Mandi area of Shawal district in North Waziristan tribal region, 65 kilometers (40 miles) west of its capital Miranshah.

“The air force jets pounded the areas close to the Afghan border in thick forests and killed at least 17 militants. Three compounds and five vehicles were also destroyed in the action,” a security official in Miranshah told AFP.

The official said that the killed militants included Uzbek and Afghan nationals and members of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Two local residents confirmed the attack to AFP.

Senior military officials based in Peshawar said they were not in a position to confirm the exact death toll but confirmed that the strikes happened in the area.

The region is remote and off-limits to journalists, making it difficult to verify the number and identity of those killed.

Wednesday’s attack on Pakistani minority Shiite Ismaili Muslims was the second-deadliest in Pakistan this year after 62 Shiite Muslims were killed in a suicide bombing in late January.

The previous death toll was 44 but increased to 45 after another wounded person succumbed to their injuries, a community spokesman and hospital official said Friday.

It was also one of the few major attacks since Taliban militants stormed a school in the northwestern Peshawar city and killed 153 people – mostly children – in December last year.

Pakistan has been battling a homegrown Islamist insurgency for over a decade following the late 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

The Pakistan army has been waging a major campaign against Taliban and other militant strongholds in the North Waziristan tribal area since June last year and authorities have now vowed to intensify operations both in border regions and across the country.

NATO and Afghan leaders on Wednesday agreed on a framework for a future joint military-civilian presence in Afghanistan when the alliance’s current mission ends, NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.

While the new mission would have a military component it would notably be led by a civilian, Stoltenberg said after a session of the NATO foreign ministers meeting in the Turkish city of Antalya attended by Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani and NATO’s top general in Afghanistan, John Campbell.

NATO is currently leading the Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan to train Afghan security forces after the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) wound up late last year.

“We took a major decision,” Stoltenberg told reporters. “We will maintain our presence in Afghanistan even after the end of our current mission.

“Unlike our present mission, our future presence will be led by civilians.”

He said the future mission “will have a light footprint but will have a military component.”

Stoltenberg said NATO offices had been tasked with working out a plan of the new mission by the autumn. It is not yet immediately clear when the Resolute Support mission will end and the new mission could start.

“The aim will be to advise Afghan institutions to help them become self-sufficient and help them build on what they have done so far,” he said.

He said NATO and the Afghan government had succeeded Wednesday in agreeing on the “guidelines” of the new mission.

Without giving precise figures, Stoltenberg said the numbers would be smaller than the present number of personnel, which comprises around 12,500 troops.

With deadly Taliban attacks against the security forces a regular occurrence, Stoltenberg acknowledged that Afghanistan remained a “dangerous place”.

He said the Afghan security forces had made “enormous sacrifices” and NATO allies and partners “will stay the course.”

Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said on the sidelines of the meeting that the violence in Afghanistan remained significant at the start of 2015, “more than we expected”.

“This means that the conflict with the Taliban remains very much open.”

Speaking separately after the talks, Rabbani hailed the “commitment” shown by the alliance towards Afghanistan.

“We received assurances from all the NATO members that their support will continue to enhance the capability of the Afghan national security forces,” he said.

“In the coming years, they will be standing by the Afghan people.”

ISAF was established by UN Security Council resolution in 2001 in the wake of the US invasion of the country to provide security and fight the Taliban after their overthrow by American forces.

The ISAF concluded operations in December 2014, making the transition to the Resolute Support mission.

Farrukh Sharifov, a 25-year-old Tajik who repented after joining the Islamic State group in Syria, spoke softly as he addressed a room full of journalists and police in his Central Asian homeland.

“Hundreds and hundreds of young men from the countries of Central Asia go to war in Syria,” Sharifov warned at a press conference last week called by Tajikistan’s authoritarian government.

Several days later, reports claimed a top police commander had joined the jihadists in the Middle East, sparking even more alarm over IS’s potential penetration in the majority-Muslim country of eight million.

Ex-Soviet Tajikistan, where remittances from migrants working in Russia account for around half of economic output, is the poorest of five former communist republics in Central Asia.

Sharifov, who returned home on May 6 after escaping IS, said the group had its sights on the region, echoing President Emomali Rakhmon’s warnings that cast Islamic radicalism as the country’s main challenge.

Emissaries from the IS group — which Sharifov condemned as “un-Islamic” and “evil” — are looking to “direct the flames of war towards ex-Soviet countries,” he said.

There are no exact figures for how many people from the five ex-Soviet Central Asian states are now fighting in the Middle East, but the International Crisis Group (ICG) says between 2,000 and 4,000 people may have travelled to Syria and Iraq since 2011.

Tajikistan, which says 386 of its nationals are living in the two countries, has launched a crackdown on Islamism at home, with some accusing authorities of going too far.

The government is offering amnesty to repenting IS returnees and waging an aggressive media campaign against the group.

On the street, authorities are even forcibly shaving men’s beards, imposing restrictions on the annual Hajj pilgrimage and campaigning against the hijab.

“It seems likely that appearing in front of the media was part of Sharifov’s plea bargain,” said Edward Lemon, a researcher at the University of Exeter tracking Tajik fighters in the Middle East.

– ‘Sophisticated propaganda’ –

Fears have multiplied since the interior ministry confirmed Tuesday that a special forces commander, Gulmurod Halimov, had been absent since the beginning of the month.