Afghan charity organization, the Bayat Foundation, has distributed food supplies to hundreds of deserving families in eastern Nangarhar province as part of their ongoing campaign to help reach as many people as possible.

The food parcels that include flour, rice, and cooking oil, were donated to families who had been displaced due to poverty and conflict in the province.

Bayat Foundation officials stated they had so far distributed essential food supplies to vulnerable people in Ghazni, Kunduz, Kandahar, Bamiyan, Herat, Balkh, and Khost provinces.

Every year the foundation provides needy families with essential food supplies ahead of Afghanistan’s harsh winters. This year, more people are being reached in different provinces due to the current humanitarian crisis gripping the country.

Haji Mohammad Ismail, Deputy Head of the Bayat Foundation, said: “Through its continued winter aid program, that the Bayat Foundation distributes every year, the assistance is now fortunately being distributed to other provinces.”

He said: “Today we came to Jalalabad city in Nangarhar province to distribute food supplies including flour, rice, and oil to a number of deserving people that were identified by the Bayat Foundation’s team in Nangarhar.”

The foundation stated it will continue its winter aid campaign, adding that further assistance will be sent to desperate families in other provinces.

Grateful recipients of the food aid and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) officials thanked the Bayat Foundation for their initiative and called on other charity organizations to step in to help at-risk families during the winter season.

Clashes broke out Thursday night between Afghan security forces and Pakistani troops along the Durand Line in Mohmand Dara district in Nangarhar province, officials have confirmed. 

According to the Nangarhar governor’s spokesman Attaullah Khogyani, Pakistani troops opened fire on Afghan border police when they tried to stop the Pakistani soldiers from erecting a barbed-wire fence. 

Khogyani said clashes are ongoing and local residents in Ghoraki have fled the area. 

A border police source told Ariana News that at least one Afghan border policeman has been killed and three others wounded.

Almost eighteen hours into the Jalalabad prison attack, Afghan security forces are still trying to bring the situation under control and round up escaped prisoners. 

Officials have said that hundreds of prisoners who escaped during the attack have since been caught. 

Some prisoners who have been arrested told Ariana News that six attackers entered the prison and ordered them to leave. The prisoners were told that if they did not leave they would be killed by the assailants. 

A security source said that the prisoners who escaped include Taliban members, Daesh militants, and criminals.

The attack started just after 6.30 pm on Sunday night and has continued through the night and Monday morning. 

Daesh, which claimed responsibility, detonated a car bomb outside the prison on Sunday evening, blowing the gate open. Militants then stormed the facility.

In the ensuing gun battle, hundreds of prisoners escaped. 

It is believed, however, that Daesh militants took control of two prison towers earlier and that some prisoners have taken up arms and are fighting alongside the attackers. However, there has been no official confirmation of these reports. 

Nangarhar governor’s spokesman, Attaullah Khogyani, meanwhile said the death toll has risen to 21 and 43 wounded. 

He said the victims include prisoners, security forces, and civilians. 

Zahir Adil, a spokesman for the provincial health directorate, told Ariana News that 13 of those wounded are in a critical condition. 

This attack started just a day after Afghanistan’s intelligence services announced the Afghan special forces had killed a high-ranking Daesh member in an operation in eastern Afghanistan.

A statement late Saturday by the National Directorate of Security said the slain militant was Assadullah Orakzai, an intelligence leader for the IS affiliate (Daesh) in Afghanistan. The statement said he was killed near Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province. IS has its headquarters in the province.

Orakzai was suspected of being involved in several deadly attacks against both military and civilian targets in Afghanistan.