Kabul, Aug 13: About 100 soldiers of the Afghan Special Force have gone missing in the Ghazni province, where government troops are battling Taliban militants backed by US airstrikes, authorities said on Monday.
According to Tolo News, "10 personnel of the missing unit had been killed and 20 others discovered alive" in Ajristan district.
Ghazni, the capital of Ghazni province 125 km south of Kabul, is in its fourth day under siege after hundreds of Taliban fighters launched an attack on the city in the early hours of Friday.
Meanwhile, President Ashraf Ghani has ordered more troops to be sent to Ghazni.
The clashes erupted after hundreds of Taliban insurgents stormed important government entities including the National Directorate for Security (Afghanistan's Intelligence Agency) and the provincial governor's office.
Ghazni lies on the Kabul-Kandahar highway, an important artery connecting the capital to the country's southern provinces and some of its western ones.
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Narayanpur (Chhattisgarh) (PTI): Emotional scenes were witnessed on Sunday as wreaths were laid on the mortal remains of three of the four police personnel killed in an explosion in a gunpowder dump of Maoists in Chhattisgarh's Kanker district.
The grieving family members were inconsolable, while security personnel tried to comfort them.
Amid chants of "Bharat Mata ki Jai" and "Vande Mataram," public representatives, along with senior police and administrative officials, paid tributes to the deceased personnel.
The wreath-laying ceremony to pay homage to Inspector Sukhram Vatti (40), constables Krishna Komra (35) and Sanjay Gadhpale (29), killed in the explosion on Saturday, was held at the Police Lines in Narayanpur district, neighbouring Kanker.
The mortal remains of constable Parmanand Komra (29), who succumbed to injuries during treatment in Raipur, will be shifted to Kanker, where a separate wreath-laying ceremony will be held, police said.
Inspector General of Police, Bastar Range, Sundarraj Pattilingam, after paying homage, told reporters that the four police personnel made the supreme sacrifice while protecting the region.
"I pay my homage to them," he added.
The four personnel were killed while they were attempting to dispose of a gunpowder dump hidden earlier by Maoists in a forest near Aadnar village under Chhotebethiya police station limits in Kanker district, according to police.
It was the first explosion linked to Naxalites in the state since it was declared free from armed Maoists on March 31, and also the first instance this year in which security personnel engaged in anti-Naxal operations lost their lives.
District Reserve Guard (DRG) official Vatti, who was leading the team, hailed from Bijapur district. Constable Krishna Komra of the district force and constables Gadhpale and Parmanand Komra of the Bastar Fighters were residents of different villages in Kanker.
