A number of legislators on Tuesday said Kunduz governor Assadullah Omarkhail must be dismissed and brought to justice over alleged distribution of money to Taliban families in the province.

The Kunduz governor said at a meeting with tribal elders from the province this week he had distributed money to between 50 and 60 families of Taliban militants who occupied Kunduz and were then killed in the fight against Afghan security forces.

The lawmakers said giving money to the Taliban families is treason and an insult to the sacrifices made by security forces across the country.

“I urge President [Ashraf Ghani] to suspend the governor and bring him to justice. He should be prosecuted as a person who supported the enemy,” MP Ghulam Farooq Majroh told TOLOnews on Tuesday.

“Giving the money, which is allocated to bereaved families of the security forces, to insurgents is not acceptable,” another member of the Wolesi Jirga (Lower House of Parliament) Fatima Aziz said.

Meanwhile, Munira Yusufzada, a spokesperson for the Independent Directorate of Local Governance, said the authority had started investigating the governor’s claim.

“This is not the issue which we say that this money has been given to the Taliban; this is the issue which one citizen’s right should not be given to another,” Yusufzada said.

“The goal of the governor’s remarks … was about the incident that happened in Buz Kandahari region where 33 of our countrymen were martyred. The people who received the money were relatives of those who fought against government and were killed in the incident,” said Sayed Mahmood Danish, spokesman for Kunduz governor.