The head of the Afghan intelligence agency, Ahmad Zia Saraj, at a session with MPs on Sunday said that Taliban attacks have increased by 24% following the signing of the Doha agreement last year, adding that the group has launched 20,600 attacks since last March.

Saraj said that the Taliban has not made any changes in their ideology and that the Turkey conference will not have the expected results.

Saraj addressed the internal security and the defense committees of the Parliament, responding to their questions on the country’s security situation as well as the diversion of the Pakistani parliament speaker's plane from Hamid Karzai International Airport last week.

According to Siraj, over 4,500 Taliban and Daesh members were arrested last solar year (March 2020 to March 2021) of which 221 were involved in targeted attacks and bombings. He said 1,500 of them were involved in organized crimes.

“Our evaluation based on our information is that the Taliban has not changed, and the Turkey conference might be a conference like the one in Moscow in which some will attend and will return,” Saraj said.

The MPs said that the government and the Taliban are blaming each other for violence.

“The Taliban is making once claim while the government makes another claim. We don’t know which one is correct,” said Khan Aqa Rezaee, head of the internal security commission of the Parliament.

“Are security agencies aware that the Taliban is collecting money in Kabul,” said Mahdi Rasikh, a member of the commission.

Saraj said that at least 140 suspects have been arrested in connection with the kidnapping of Balkh child Abdul Rauf, adding that the child has been abducted by a dangerous group that is working with the Taliban and Daesh.

“The briefings of the NDS chief to some extent convinced lawmakers, but the interior and defense ministers' responses were not satisfactory to the two commissions,” said Mir Haidar Afzal, an MP.