Southern Uruzgan province will manage with the fourth phase of the security transition from the international to Afghan forces, the provincial governor said Saturday, pointing out that most of the province's security is already led by local troops.

"There are government staff in all districts of this province and, in a close cooperation with the people, security forces have impressively provided the province's security," Amir Mohammad Akhunzda told TOLOnews. "The transition process in this province has been a very successful process in military and civilian sectors. The full preparations for phase four are underway," he added.

Akhundzada said that the local organisations are increasingly capable of removing challenges faced by residents, and a close relationship between the people and the security forces has meant security has remarkably improved in the province.

He called on international donors, especially Australia whose troops are based there, to assist in Uruzgan's development – widely regarded as one of the least developed provinces in Afghanistan.

"The development budget for this province was $15 million last year, but it has $23 million specified this year for commencing projects. More than 90 percent of this fund will be spent in the projects," the governor said, adding that the energy, health, and education sectors will receive funding.

Northern Samangan province's council chief Dr Ziauddin Zia has been put on notice after the provincial governor sent a letter to the local attorney general to investigate reports that Dr Zia physically abused at least one government employee.

Samangan's governor Khairullah Anosh on Saturday said Dr Zia misused his position in connection with some issues in the province, saying he beat two local government staff.

Dr Zia denies the report.

The head of Samangan's Public Works Department Engineer Zia, who goes by one name, claims he was beaten by the head of the provincial council.

"A delegation came from the Senate to Samangan province and we were busy for the inauguration of the university's road when the head of the provincial council called me to come to his office. When I went there he beat me without any reason," Eng. Zia told TOLOnews Friday.

Dr Zia admitted that he called the engineer Zia to his office and accused him of not fulfilling his responsibilities, but he never beat him.

"He is a good guy but he does not have good management skills and he is weak in his work, so I just called him [to the office] to advise and instruct him in his work," Dr Zia responded.

The provincial governor also said that Dr Zia had disagreed with the appointment of an official in Samangan Municipal Council and had acted inappropriately.

"That person [in the Municipal Council] brought his appointment letter from the central government and he is now doing his job. But the head of provincial council sent his five bodyguards to arrest him, and now the case is before the judicial organs," Anosh said.

But Dr Zia refuted the second accusation.

"The governor is a weak person and is also a sick person. He is an ineffective leader for the government and for Samangan province," Dr Zia said.

Residents of the provincial capital Aibak spoke out on Friday in a gathering and called on the governor and the head of provincial council to end their dispute.

"We do not want such disagreements," one of the residents told TOLOnews. "We are sick of this issue," he added.

The residents expressed their concern that if such disagreements continue, partisan and ethnic violence will increase in the province.

Illegal excavation of Afghanistan's mines is happening countrywide backed by local companies and officials in positions of power, the Office of the Administrative Affairs said Saturday.

Head of the Office's Monitoring and Evaluation Authority Sayed Ihsanuddin Taheri said that in northern Balkh province alone there have been 12 companies with no existing contracts excavating mines in the province since last summer.

"Alborz Company, Karim Sharifi Company, Aria Pamir North Company are at least three firms which are doing work arbitrarily. These three are some of the 12 companies that have been excavating mines and taking gems from Balkh province since the first of Saratan this year (late June 2012)," Taheri said.

A list of other provinces with sites being illegally mined includes Kabul, Kapisa, Parwan, Panjshir, Kunduz, Badakhshan, Ghazni, Bamiyan, Kandahar, Helmand, and Herat.

At least 12 places in Kabul believed to have some 700 gem stone mines, three gem stone mines in Panjshir including an emerald mine, and four mines in Badakhshsan are all known locations where illegal excavations are continuing, Taheri said.

The official said it was known that the illegal activities were supported by powerful local figures who help smuggle the gems and other mined materials out of the country.

Decree 45, issued by President Hamid Karzai, says that companies and individuals who are found to have carried out illegal excavations will be provided to the media once it is prepared by Ministry of Mines; however, no such list has been compiled yet.

The Afghan presidential spokesman on Saturday supported claims from a United Nations' committee that negligence in US military tactics had resulted in the deaths of "hundreds" of Afghan children over a four year period.

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The Afghan president's spokesman on Saturday supported claims from a United Nations' committee that negligence in US military tactics had resulted in the deaths of "hundreds" of Afghan children over a four year period.

The Geneva-based UN Committee for the Rights of the Child Geneva – which operates independently of the UN Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (Unama) – stated its concern last week over insufficient measures taken by US military to protect children in Afghanistan's conflict and that "members of the armed forces responsible for the killings of children have not always been held accountable".

The Committee said it was alarmed by reports that hundreds of children had died in US attacks and airstrikes due to a "reported lack of precautionary measures and indiscriminate use of force."

A day after the US military rejected the claims, President Hamid Karzai's spokesman Aimal Faizi supported the UN statement in a press release on the president's website.

"One of the controversial issues, which has always stoked tension in relations between Kabul and Washington is the issue of civilian casualties arising from Isaf military ops in the country," Faizi was quoted saying in the release.

The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) on Saturday said it could not refute or support the UN claims, but it did confirm that its own statistics show an increase in child deaths in the first six months of this Persian year compared to the same period last year.

"We cannot dismiss or confirm this United Nations report. Our inspections show that children casualties in conflicts are increased, and we are worried about this situation," said Abdullah Abed, head of the AIHRC's Children Rights Support division.

AIHRC statistics show that in the first six months of this Persian year (March to August 2012) around 136 children were killed in war-induce violence while another 685 were injured.

This is a 14.5 percent increase compared to the same period last Persian year (Mar to Aug 2011). However, it is important to note that the statistics only reflect the total number of children killed regardless of whether the deaths are perpertrated by insurgent violence or by security forces.

The US military on Friday rejected the UN committee's claims as "categorically unfounded".

In a statement released by the International Security Assistance Force, which the US military leads, it said the reports were unsubstantiated and cited figures from Unama showing that most civilian deaths and injuries in Afghanistan were caused by insurgents.

Furthermore, it said Isaf reduced civilian casualties by 49 percent in 2012 from 2011, and the number of children killed or wounded in Isaf air operations had dropped by nearly 40 percent.

It said that to minimise the risk of civilian casualties both Isaf and US forces "employ detailed systems of technical, tactical and procedural checks and balances before employing all weapons in Afghanistan... [and] take precautions to employ force only when necessary, and in a proportional manner."

However, it acknowledged that civilian casualties do occur. "In each case Isaf and US military officials make every effort to meet with the families of those we have harmed and to express our condolences personally," the statement said.

In April, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that 110 children were killed and 68 were injured in 2011 during Afghan airstrikes conducted by pro-government forces, led by the US - double the child casualties from a year earlier.

General John Allen, the outgoing chief US commander in Afghanistan, on Saturday said that the uncertainty of the Afghan people about their future is his biggest concern as he leaves after 19 months leading the military forces fighting insurgency in Afghanistan.

Speaking to TOLOnews on his last day in the country, the US Marine General said the Afghans' lack of confidence in their future stems from the ongoing conflict and the government's failure to tackle corruption and build capacity.

"My biggest concern? It is uncertainty," he replied when asked what concerns he leaves behind.

"There is uncertainty right now because we are still in a conflict. And yes, there is uncertainty because we haven't achieved all we would like to achieve in terms of governmental capacity and countering corruption," he added.

However, Allen encouraged the country to look at the progress that has been made.

"The Afghan people need to take stock of how far they have come in the last 11 years. The difference between 2001 and 2013 is so dramatic it's almost breathtaking. But that only is the beginning in my mind of where Afghanistan can go."

Allen has commanded the US and Nato-led troops in Afghanistan since mid-2011 in a mission that he described as his greatest moment in his life and one he was proud to be part of.

"To be associated in any way with an outcome that can improve [Afghans'] lives and give Afghanistan a hope has been a great honour for me," he said.

"And yes, there have been challenges. I believe the campaign in and of itself has made great accomplishments in terms of moving Afghanistan towards a more secure and ultimately a stable society. Within that period of time there has been occasions where I have gone to see families, where I have gone to see the president, I have spoken with leaders in your government during some of those difficult times and I have apologised to the Afghan people for our actions. None of those actions were ever undertaken intentionally, where we have inflicted harm, where we have created tragedy," he added.

Allen is scheduled to hand over command of over 100,000-strong US and Isaf forces to his replacement Gen Joseph Dunford Sunday morning in the Isaf headquarters in Kabul.

Allen praised the progress of the Afghan National Security Force in becoming a permanent fixture in the security of Afghanistan saying he is confident that they will be able to protect the country during the presidential elections in 2014 when they will be even more prepared for combat operations.

"Multiple threat streams are coming at Kabul every single day – 365 days a year. That the fact there aren't attacks every single day is a direct reason and a derivative of the fact that the Afghan National Security Forces are in fact doing their job so well. Now, there is the old saying that we have to be right every time; they only have to be right once," Allen said.

"I think the Taliban recognise that they're going to need to determine whether this Afghan National Security Force has credibility. So we should anticipate the Taliban are going to come at the Afghan National Security Forces. I absolutely believe that they can handle it. They handled it last year, they are handling now and they are getting better every day."

Allen said he believes Pakistan is recognising Afghanistan's growing military capacity and the benefits of a "constructive military to military relationship".

After several trips to meet with the Pakistani army chief Gen Parviz Ashfaq Keyani, Allen said the conversations have increasingly been about shared capabilities "ultimately to reduce the terrorists threat along the border to the benefit of both countries".

"I believe that Pakistan ultimately sees that Afghanistan has the potential of being a secure and stable country with a democratically elected government, it sits on the top of trillions of dollars of natural resources. I believe that Pakistan sees that it's in its national interests to be of some value, ultimately, to facilitate the stability in Afghanistan," he said.

Assailants fired dozens of mortars and rockets at an Iranian exiles camp in Iraq in an attack that killed five people, the first violent deaths since they resettled near Baghdad last year.

It was not immediately clear who was behind Saturday's assault on Camp Liberty, a former US military base on the outskirts of the capital housing about 3,000 members of the People's Mujahedeen of Iran, or the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK).

The United Nations mission in Iraq called for an immediate probe and said monitors were following up on the deaths, while the UN High Commissioner for Refugees condemned what he called a "despicable act of violence."

The US State Department labeled the assault a "vicious and senseless terrorist attack," and called on Iraq to probe the attack and enhance security at the camp.

Five members of the People's Mujahedeen were killed by the mortar rounds and rockets, according to two Iraqi security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The attack also wounded at least 40 members of the group and three Iraqi policemen, they said.

The US State Department put the toll at six dead and dozens injured.

The MEK, whose leadership is based in Paris, said in a statement that six people were killed and more than 100 wounded.

The mortar fire struck Camp Liberty, where residents from the MEK were moved last year, on Iraq's insistence, from their historic paramilitary camp of the 1980s -- Camp Ashraf, near the Iranian border.

One Iraqi security official said about 40 rockets and mortar rounds were fired into the camp, and the MEK gave a similar figure.

The United Nations said its special envoy Martin Kobler had asked Iraqi authorities to "promptly conduct an investigation into this," adding: "We have our monitors on the ground to follow up."

Eliana Nabaa, spokeswoman for the UN mission, said Iraqi officials had told the United Nations that "all those who were injured were hospitalised immediately."

Camp Ashraf was the base that now-executed dictator Saddam Hussein allowed the group to establish in Diyala province in the 1980s, during Iraq's eight-year war with Iran.

The residents are in the process of being resettled, and a US official said in October that the United States and several European countries had agreed to take them in.

The MEK was founded in the 1960s to oppose the shah of Iran, and after the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted him it took up arms against Iran's clerical rulers.

It says it has now laid down its arms and is working to overthrow the Islamic regime in Tehran by peaceful means.

Britain struck the group off its terror list in June 2008, followed by the European Union in 2009 and the United States in September 2012.

The US State Department holds the group responsible, however, for the deaths of Iranians as well as US soldiers and civilians from the 1970s to 2001, and in its note about delisting the MEK it stressed that it had not forgotten the group's militant past.

A senior US official also said at the time that Washington does "not see the MEK as a viable opposition."

In Washington on Saturday, at a convention of pro-democracy Iranian-Americans, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani called on the United States to take in the camp residents.

"These people can all be removed within hours," said Giuliani. "Planes can be sent immediately. They can be here within a day. We have done far more difficult things than that. It's only about 3,000 people."

Another guest speaker at the convention, former national security advisor General James Jones, said: "Camp Liberty has a name that is not worthy of a prison, which it has become.

"It is the responsibility of all countries of goodwill to ensure that the victimization of the Ashraf refugees is not perpetrated and that this debacle comes to a swift and just conclusion."

A Taliban leader was killed in a joint Afghan and Nato troops operation in southern Kandahar province yesterday, Isaf said Sunday.

According to Isaf, the leader Abdul Baki, also known as Ruzi, operated as part of an extensive insurgent network in Uruzgan, Helmand and Kandahar provinces, coordinating complex attacks with suicide operatives.

"The security force conducted a precision strike, killing him," Isaf said in its operations update.

Two more local Taliban leaders have been arrested Sunday in the Kunduz district of northern Kunduz province.

While neither leader was named in Isaf's statement, it said one leader is accused of gathering materials and facilitating logistics to conduct improvised explosive device attacks (IED), and the second "is believed to be an IED cell member and weapons facilitator operating in Baghlan-e Jadid district".

Meanwhile, a third local Taliban leader was captured in Zurmat district of eastern Paktiya province. He is believed to have overseen nearly 45 insurgent fighters, Isaf said.

Also in the east, Isaf said a raid in the Baraki Barak district of Logar province Sunday resulted in the death of two armed insurgents.

The Afghan Women's Business Federation (AWBF) has launched a training programme for female business owners to improve their access to donor funds aimed directly at supporting women's initiatives.

The AWBF programme titled "Improving Businesswomen's Access to Source of Funds" will initially train 60 businesswomen in Kabul over two 20-day phases. Plans are underway to also roll out the programme to female business owners in Balkh, Herat, Kandahar, and Uruzgan.

"We put together this programme to help women access the funds that flow to Afghanistan under their name, funds that they have until today not benefited from, whether it's loans with low interests or grants," said Guljan Zmarai, head of the AWBF.

Business owners in Kabul welcomed the programme.

"We want, not only for ourselves but for all our sisters to attend such programmes so that they can run their business well," one of the programme attendees told TOLOnews Sunday.

"Some of us have done business all this time but we haven't reached anywhere. For whatever business we did, we were left behind. But we hope the Federation will be able to do what it has assured," another Kabul business owner said.

The programme is being backed by the Faida Department at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The Afghan government will not sign a strategic pact with Islamabad unless it is clear that Pakistan poses no threat to Afghanistan, foreign minister Zalmai Rassoul said Sunday.

A week after meeting Pakistani government and security officials in London, Rassoul said that the government will ensure that Afghanistan's conditions are very clear for the peace deal proposed at the trilateral summit between Britain, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

"The agreement was addressed at the London conference. However, as long as Pakistan shows no sign of honest cooperation to provide peace and sustainability, and there is no trust gained from our people, there will be no such agreement signed," he told TOLOnews.

"But, of course, we assure there will be no danger of Afghanistan posing a threat to Pakistan," he added.

This comes as reports that the Assembly of Islamic Clerics (Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam) sent the general secretary and president, Maulana Fazal-ur-Rahman, to Qatar on Saturday for talks with the Taliban – a visit taken seemingly at the behest of the Taliban.

The government of Pakistan has not yet confirmed whether these reports are correct.

Rassoul dismissed the significance of such reports saying it did not matter whether Maulana Fazal-ur-Rahman has travelled to Qatar or not.

"The Qatar office is only for direct talks with Taliban and it will not be a political office [of government] for them. It is not important which Maulana has travelled to Qatar. The office has not opened yet, but we are in dialogues with government of Qatar to open the office," he said.

Neighbouring Pakistan has long been accused of allowing insurgents safe-havens in the country's west – near the border with Afghanistan. So its role in the peace process is important.

The US Marine General Joseph Dunford took control of the Nato-led combat mission in Afghanistan on Sunday in an elaborate ceremony from the outgoing Gen. John Allen who has led the US and Nato forces for 19 months.

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Terrorists from all over the world are part of Kapisa's growing insurgency, the provincial governor said Sunday as he called for the security forces to be strengthened.

Speaking to TOLOnews, Mehrabuddin Safi said he does not feel the province is secure enough to face the current threats.

"[Government] opposition groups and terrorists in the southern parts, especially in the Tagab and Alasai districts, have gathered from every part of the world and are creating problems for the residents," he said, adding that it is mainly Pakistanis from the Haqqani Network and Hizb-e Islami causing the instability.

Safi said he feels that the Afghan security forces in the province are not properly equipped to address the threats.

"Our national police need to be strengthened and the number of local police needs to be increased in Najrab, Tagab and Alasi district so that we can free these districts from the terrorists," he said.

Insurgents may be seeking more control in Kapisa because of its closeness to Afghanistan's capital – it shares a border with Kabul province.

The lawyer for former Kabul Bank chairman Shir Khan Farnood claimed on Sunday that the investigation into the collapse of the bank by a special tribunal has not been done fairly.

Just days away from the tribunal releasing its findings, Farnood's lawyer Sabghatullah Tamim said that the available documents show that Mahmoud Karzai, brother of President Hamid Karzai, and Mohammad Hassin Fahim, the brother of Vice President Marshal Mohammad Kasim Fahim, have not repaid their loans from the defunct bank and they have abused their power and influence in the government.

Farnood was investigated by the court along with former Kabul Bank chief executive Khalil Ferozi for their role in the bank's collapse, but Tamim said the court ignored both Karzai and Fahim for fear of their connections in the government.

"Previously, they had accounted for Hassin Fahim's $121 million loan for the Gas Group – they [Fahim's company] admitted it. They marked their fingerprints and admitted at the Receivership Department that they would pay the loan back, I mean both Khalil Ferozi and Hassin Fahim. But they referred it to the commission of financial lawsuits, which reviewed the matter, and they took the conclusion from the commission. This is against the banking law of Article 84 that says 'No case is revisable'," Tamim said.

"They even made a joke about it and described it like a metaphor – that they had acted like Prophet Mohammad's companions doing a work [accepting money] as an oblation," Tamim added.

However both shareholders Mahmoud Karzai and Hassin Fahim deny they have paid any outstanding loans from Kabul Bank.

"I have paid all my loans and I do not owe even one cent to Gas Group and now Mr Ferozi has got all the responsibilities of Gas Group," Fahim said Sunday in a telephone interview with TOLOnews.

Mahmoud told TOLOnews last week that any reports of him owing money were false. He made the statement after the special tribunal chief Shams Rahman Shams stated that he and Fahim still owed money to the bank.

Tamim also claimed on Sunday that the special tribunal had failed to investigate counterfeiting overseen by Mahmoud Karzai.

"Mahmoud Karzi himself made more than 10 forged trading licenses – it still exists in the files – and he received loans on the basis of that. So then, why is he not now investigated by the judicial bodies? " Tamim asked.

Mahmoud Karzai retaliated, telling TOLOnews Sunday in a telephone interview that Farnood is the most guilty party, referring to the $400 million he allegedly stashed in offshore accounts.

"Here [Afghanistan] is a good place for thieves because you do whatever you want, then talk freely and without responsibility. First [Farnood] should bring that $400 million and give it back to the Afghan nation, then wash out his mouth, and then he should talk," Mahmood Karzai said.

The special tribunal on Kabul Bank is expected to deliver its verdict this week on its investigation into at least 22 people said to be involved in the bank's collapse in 2010.

Top news in this Bulletin:

The US Marine General Joseph Dunford took control of the Nato-led combat mission in Afghanistan on Sunday in an elaborate ceremony from the outgoing Gen. John Allen who has led the US and Nato forces for 19 months.

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The Afghan High Peace Council (HPC) has welcomed Pakistan's decision to give a formal role to the Afghan government in the release of the remaining Taliban prisoners amid concerns that those being released are returning to the insurgency.

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Al Qaeda, Haqqani and Taliban groups are active in parts of central Parwan province, the provincial governor said Monday, adding that he is optimistic of the ability of the Afghan forces to defend the province.

However, while Abdul Basir Salangi believes the Afghan security forces can protect the people if the situation descended into combat, he is fearful of the damage of the hidden improvised explosive devices.

"The Seyagird, Shinwarye, Ghorband and Kohi Safi districts are where Al Qaeda, Haqqani and Taliban are active," he said, adding that these groups are weak and not able to fight the Afghan forces, but the makeshift explosives remain a big challenge.

"After 2014 there is no threat. Not only us but even our women can defeat the Taliban and they [the Taliban] can't reach victory through war," he added.

Salangi's comments echo those of neighbouring Kapisa province governor Mahrabulddin Safi who told TOLOnews Sunday that "terrorists from all over the world" are causing growing unrest in Kapisa.

However, unlike Salangi, Safi felt that the security forces were not yet strong enough to face the threats.

"Our national police need to be strengthened and the number of local police needs to be increased in Najrab, Tagab and Alasi district so that we can free these districts from the terrorists," he said.

Insurgents may be seeking more control in Kapisa and Parwan because of their closeness to Afghanistan's capital – both provinces share a border with Kabul.

Members of a parliamentary group Monday spoke out against the Afghan government's push to use old registration cards in the upcoming presidential election, citing greater risk of fraud.

The Resalat Parliamentary Group released a statement warning the executive arm of the government that if the 2014 election collapses with fraud, it will mean a failure of democracy and Afghanistan will enter a huge crisis.

"In order to have a transparent election, we should have the exact statistics of the population which the government has delayed to undertake. The government decision to use the old [voting] cards is paving the way for fraud in the election," Resalat member Zahir Saadat said in the statement.

The group asked the government to respect the autonomy of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) which had initially recommended a new registration and electronic voting cards country-wide.

It also called on both the Parliament and Senate to pressure the government to approve such decisions soon, and it called on the international community not to support an undemocratic process.

"The international community should know that the Afghan government is following a policy that is weakening the electoral system," Zahir added.

But the IEC responded Monday saying that it is making its own decisions without pressure from the government.

"Several parties and organisations including the government are trying to interfere and change the outcomes for themselves, but the election commission is not allowing anyone to illegally interfere and reach their aims," spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor told TOLOnews.

The presidential and provincial council elections will be held April 5 2014.

A Pakistan political leader has met with the Afghan Taliban in Qatar in an unexpected move that the Pakistani government has distanced itself from and some Afghan analysts say will not bring any positive results.

Head of the Islamic conservative party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Maulana Fazlur Rehman met with the Taliban representatives in Doha on Sunday.

It is understood that he met a group headed by Tayyab Agha, a close aide to Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar.

A former Taliban member believes that Rehman's efforts will be futile in assisting the peace process which hinges more on the major parties.

"Pakistan should show a positive view [towards negotiations] and those Afghan Taliban who are located in Pakistan should also show eagerness and the Afghan government should also give a positive answer. Then I think these problems will be solved. Otherwise if there is negative outlook like there is now, I don't think there will be any good results," Sayed Akbar Agha, former head of Taliban affiliated Jaysh al-Muslimin group, told TOLOnews.

Political analyst Jawid Kohestani said that are some concerns that Rehman is working for Pakistan's benefits rather than Afghanistan's.

"Fazlur Rehman's efforts to improve relations between the Taliban are not to create better relations with the Afghanistan government," he told TOLOnews.

However, the Pakistan government Sunday distanced itself from the meeting with Interior Minister Rehman Malik saying the JUI-F chief was no longer an ally of the Pakistan Peoples Party government and was acting "in his personal capacity".

"Fazlur Rehman is the head of an independent party... the government does not have any business in his negotiations with the [Afghan] Taliban or any other stakeholder," Malik was quoted by the Express Tribune as telling reporters.

There are understood to be around a dozen Taliban representatives in Doha setting up an office with the support of the Afghan government.

Reports of the Rehman meeting were earlier dismissed by the Afghan foreign ministry as not important, despite the Afghan government's repeated demand to all interested parties including Pakistan that it leads any Taliban negotiations.

"It is not important which Maulana has travelled to Qatar," Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul told TOLOnews on Sunday.

Afghanistan's High Peace Council member reiterated this Monday, saying that any negotiations must include Afghans.

"The efforts should be according to Afghan policy otherwise it will not be acceptable for us," Mohammad Ismail Qasimyar said.

A delegation appointed by President Hamid Karzai to investigate a United Nations report that torture was systemic in Afghanistan's prisons confirmed Monday it has found evidence of detainee torture, but it denied the abuse was systemic.

The delegation investigated prisons and detention centers in Kabul, Kandahar and Herat provinces after Karzai ordered an inquiry into the UN Assistance Mission to Afghanistan's (Unama) findings of nationwide abuse in the penal system.

"Members of the delegation did not find systemic torture in Afghan detention centers and prisons which was reported in the UN report and it also did not find any private detention centers nor cases of rape," delegation head Abdul Qadir Adalatkhwa told TOLOnews Monday.

"But members of the delegation confirm there are cases of torture and ill treatment -- beatings which occurred in the first stage of arrest," he added.

The delegation has recommended the Attorney General take serious action against those found guilty of abusing prisoners in this way.

Its findings were based on interviews with 284 prisoners. Just under half – or 148 prisoners – claimed that they were tortured in the first stage of arrest, although the delegation said it believed only 136 prisoners and considered the other 12 claims as "suspicious".

Apart from this initial torture and ill-treatment, the delegation found that almost 48 percent of prisoners experienced lack of access to health services, their cases not being addressed by relevant judicial organs and some even remaining in prison for a time after their official release or completion of prison term.

Furthermore, 66 percent of the prisoners had no access to adequate legal representation. And in Kandahar province alone, 10 districts had no court or attorney general.

The delegation said that Unama did not disclose any names of the prisoners interviewed for its own report, nor did it participate in the government investigation.

"We had a panel of impartial people. If they [the UN] had been with us we would have worked on their report, but we are neither denying their report nor are we accepting it," delegation member Abdul Aqrar Wasel told TOLOnews.

The government delegations comments are in stark contrast to previous claims from officials including the National Directorate of Security (NDS) that denied any kind of abuse in detention centers.

However, the delegation's probe included prisons belonging to NDS departments 40 and 124 where prisoners claimed they were subjected to abuse.

A legal adviser to the NDS still maintained Monday that the reports are not true.

"We saw the UN report about the rape or other issues which are not true at all and we are still denying that," Sayed Zahor Rasooli told TOLOnews.

The delegation submitted 11 proposals to the government to improve the prisons and address the torture, including calling for the release of the aged prisoners, release those whose prison term is complete, and to address the lack of attorney generals and courts in some districts.

Unama released a statement Monday evening welcoming the findings as announced by the delegation, although it noted that it has not yet read the report.

Top news in this Bulletin:

A delegation appointed by President Hamid Karzai to investigate a United Nations report that torture was systemic in Afghanistan's prisons confirmed Monday it has found evidence of detainee torture, but it denied the abuse was systemic.

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