By Farid Tanha
Hundreds of people on Saturday held a protest rally against what they claimed civilian deaths at the hands of foreign troops in central Kapisa province, northeast of Kabul.
The demonstrators claimed ISAF soldiers raided a civilian house on Friday night in the Karamkhel area of Tagab district, killing two inmates and arresting a third after being shot wounded.
May 1, 2012: Afghans protest the killing of two civilians during a joint Afghan-NATO raid early Tuesday. (Photo: Abdul Mueed/EPA)
More than 300 residents who took part in the rally that began at 8:30am placed the dead bodies on the Kabul-Jalalabad highway, blocking the road in Sarobi district of Kabul.
"ISAF and Afghan forces continue to kill innocent people in their operations, but so far no action could be taken in this regard," Abdul Raqib, a Tagab resident, who took part in the rally, told Pajhwok Afghan News. He asked President Karzai to order investigation into the latest civilian deaths.
"They (foreign troops) kill civilians under the pretext of operations against militants," another demonstrator, Mazar Khan, said. He also called for probing the incident.
However, the district's deputy police chief, Maj. Abdul Qadir, rejected that civilians had been killed during the operation. He said those killed were Taliban fighters.