The Presidential Palace on Tuesday evening said security forces have been ordered to retake Mirza Olang village of Sayyad district of Sar-e-Pul province in north of Afghanistan and to clear the region of the insurgents.

In a statement the Presidential palace called the massacre in Mirza Olang a crime against humanity, emphasizing that security institutions have been ordered to eradicate the insurgents in the district.

Meanwhile, Sar-e-Pul governor, Mohammad Zahir Wahdat said they had earlier warned the central government of the insurgents’ threats, but the warning was simply ignored and no action was taken.

“I warned them prior the disaster. But due to problems in the government and in the system, it did respond in time,” said Wahdat.

Security institutions officials have admitted negligence over addressing security threats in Sar-e-Pul, especially in Sayyad district. They said the region is remote and that was a reason the massacre happened. 

“From the day that problem (insecurity) started, our forces were there and launched operations from the air and ground. It does not mean that no operation was launched there,” defense ministry spokesman, Dawlat Waziri said.

Former military officials meanwhile have said negligence of security officials in addressing threats, lack of cooperation, poor management and not having the authority to launch operations against the insurgents is dangerous and is a reason why a deadly incident such as Mirza Olang massacre happens.

“We should assess the regions and based on those findings deploy troops. We should not act re-actively,” Mirza Mohammad Yarmand, a former military officer said.

“The problem is that people (officials) are chosen based on their relationships. Thus, such incidents happen. The enemy are given more time to inflict casualties and losses,” Zalmai Wardak, another former military officer said.

Security institutions have, however, said good cooperation is maintained between the security forces stationed in the provinces and security officials in Kabul.  Mirza Olang said the massacre is a lesson for the security forces to prevent such deadly incidents in future.

“We, with all our power, do what we can, but in war things often do not happen in our favor. Some circumstances change during war. We should learn from it and in future operations act more seriously,” Najib Danish, acting director of interior ministry spokesman office said.

According to former military officers, this was not the first time that civilians were killed due to negligence and inability of security officials and yet no fundamental action has been taken to prevent such incidents.