The heads of security agencies who were summoned to the Wolesi Jirga, the Lower House of the Parliament, on Saturday came under severe pressure and criticism from legislators over the sharp rise in violence this month.

The lawmakers said security agencies “have failed to ensure the safety of the people and prevent deadly attacks in the country”.

“The war is going towards the ethnic issues, towards linguistic issues and towards religious issues. Silence in this respect is a shame,” said Nahid Farid, an MP from Herat.

“The president gives lectures and his advisors and minsters are clapping for him. Alas, they should see what is going on in this country,” said Saleh Mohammad Saljoqi, an MP.

Other MPs claimed there are some groups inside government which have “links with terrorists”.

“ARG (the Presidential Palace) is involved in all these plans. I swear no one else is involved in this respect,” said Zahir Qadir, an MP from Nangarhar. 

“This government is involved in the conspiracy against our people. We recently witnessed four attacks against the army forces in Kandahar (province),” said Lalai Hamidzai, a lawmaker from Kandahar.

The Wolesi Jirga Speaker Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi meanwhile said they want exact answers from the security heads.

“As the heads of the security agencies and as those who attend the security sessions at the Presidential Palace, they should give convincing answers to the people of Afghanistan (about MPs’ questions),” Ibrahimi said.

Saturday’s session was held behind closed doors after a request from the security heads.

“We want to honestly share our information about all the threats and other security issues, but we request a secret meeting for this,” the acting defense minister Tariqshah Bahrami said.

This comes after Taliban targeted numerous military facilities in different parts of the country which claimed the lives of dozens of people just in the past week.

On Friday, attacks on two mosques in Kabul and Ghor left at least 59 people dead and many others wounded.