Armed insurgents launched attacks on police posts in Oshi,
Yakhdan and Sakhar areas of the Charchino district, sparking fierce gun-battles with police on Thursday, the district police chief 2nd Lt.
Around 900 families live in Khoshal Abad and Yakhdan villages of Dawlat Abad district of the province, and about 40 percent can no longer speak Arabic, according to elders.
Saifullah Yakhdan, a village elder, said Arabic was a dying language.
Yakhdan said there were 300 families in the village, engaged mainly in agriculture and carpet weaving.
Yakhdan said he was concerned that without efforts to protect Arabic, the language would disappear.
Mohammad Sideeq, 63, a resident of Yakhdan village, said many people who had lived in Afghanistan for a long time no longer thought of themselves as Arabic.