President Ashraf Ghani on Saturday addressed an event in Kabul to mark the 25th anniversary of 8th of Saur, which is Mujahideen Victory Day, and said times have changed and that today no group can take power through terror, killing and bloodshed.
Ghani did not point to any specific group, but said these groups do not know the meaning of Islam and that they will be defeated.
"In the current era, no group can take power through killing and bloodshed. These groups do not know Islam and we will eliminate them," he said.
CEO, Abdullah Abdullah also spoke at the event and said the Taliban's Mansouri Operation, which was launched on Friday, will be defeated.
"Today they have started their operation, an aggressive operation against Afghan people under the name of Mansouri. The fate of this operation will be the same as the fate of Mansour (Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, the late Taliban leader), of whom the operation has been named after," said Abdullah.
Government leaders on Saturday also called on the nation and political parties to unite and said any move against national interests will provide opportunities for the enemies.
This comes in the wake of the dismissal of Ahmad Zia Massoud, the president's former special representative on reforms and good governance, who this week spoke out against government.
"We will only be vulnerable when we are not united, when we do not trust each other and when political, ethnic, linguistic and regional discord distances the people from each other. This is what we should be aware of," Ghani said.
"When we discuss national issues in government and under government's umbrella, we have the same opinion about national interests. But when we choose these approaches, sometimes it weakens Afghanistan and encourages enemies of the country," said Abdullah.
"If we summarize the entire lesson learned from 1978 up to now in one sentence, it would be respecting national unity. We all should respect national unity so as to not witness past failures," Sarwar Danish, the Second Vice President said.
Ghani also said the country is at a critical stage in history and urged political groups and Afghan people to support security forces.
Other participants at the event also stressed the need to eliminate the enemies.
"We should differentiate between friends and enemies and should eliminate those enemies that do not want to join the peace process to clear the country of the enemies," said the speaker of parliament, Abdul Raouf Ibrahimi.
"We want to have good relationships with all far and near neighboring countries, but despite this, we want Afghan people to be respected," Senate Chairman Fazl Hadi Muslimyar said.
Ghani also said corruption in security departments is a serious challenge and that government is committed to overcoming the problem and to bringing fundamental reforms.
Ghani once again stressed that corruption within security departments is not acceptable.
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/6361
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