Fawzia Koofi, a member of the peace negotiating team representing the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in the talks with the Taliban, on Thursday said that the presence of foreign Taliban in the northern regions of Afghanistan, particularly along the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border, is threatening the security of those areas. She called for swift action to neutralize them.

Numbers issued by a violence-monitoring department in the State Ministry for Peace Affairs indicate that over 24,000 Taliban fighters were killed and wounded in battles with the Afghan security forces over the past four months.