Amid an operation by security forces to find Alipoor, a local commander in Behsud, the Second Vice President said Tuesday that governments should ensure justice and equality in political relations, adding that war will end when discrimination and oppression are ended. 

“The government and states should dominate justice. It should remove discrimination, and inequality should be removed, so that the grounds for war are removed,” Danesh said. 

“The acting ministers of defense and interior and the new acting minister (for interior affairs) only focused their effort on the arrest of Alipoor. I have no idea why amid all the political, security and social challenges and Daesh and Taliban and threats against the government they are briefed about a person who does not need this much noise against him,” said Assadullah Saadati, the deputy head of the High Council for National Reconciliation. 

Reports from Maidan Wardak indicate that government forces are actively tracking Alipoor and his men who are accused of downing the army helicopter. 

Some families claimed that their relatives were killed by security forces gunfire two months ago during a clash with Alipoor. They said that Alipoor had taken up arms following the government’s inattention to the security of the people. 

“He was neither a fighter nor did he have a gun. He was not with the government or with Alipoor,” said Masooma, a member of a victim’s family. 

“The government is insufficient therefore the people stood behind Alipoor in Behsud,” said Mohammad Jan, a Behsud resident. 

The Ministry of Defense said that the operation to take revenge on the perpetrators of the attack on the army helicopter in Behsud has been underway for the last four days. 

The ministry said at least 12 fighters who were with Alipoor have been killed and six more have been wounded in the operations. 

“Many outposts that were established for extortion and to disturb the people and which belonged to Alipoor have been removed,” Defense Ministry spokesman Rohullah Ahmadzai said. 

 “We call on the people to cooperate with their security forces,” Maidan Wardak governor Abdul Rahman Tariq said. 

 Alipoor initially admitted that his fighters downed the helicopter, but in a newly released video today, he denied involvement in the attack.