Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has said that gunmen had been airdropped by unknown helicopters to the relatively peaceful northern provinces, a local newspaper reported Monday.
"President Karzai alleged Sunday that some unidentified helicopters dropped armed men in northern Baghlan, Kunduz, and Samangan provinces at night since the past five months," local daily Outlook said, Xinhua reported.
The president said "even today we received reports that the furtive process is still ongoing."
According to the newspaper, Karzai did not share the evidence with journalists but said, "a compressive investigation was underway to determine which country the helicopters belonged to; why armed men were being infiltrated into the region; and whether increasing insecurity in the north was linked to it."
Karzai made this disclosure amid escalating Taliban-linked insurgency in northern Afghanistan over the past several months. Afghan Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak told parliament on Saturday that some 4,000 militants from Chechnya, Pakistan and Middle East countries have sneaked into Afghanistan to carry out terrorist activities.
Earlier, governor of northern Balkh province said that certain circles had been distributing weapons to irresponsible men in the northern region to sabotage peace.