A new political movement, led by former National Directorate of Security (NDS) chief Assadullah Khalid, was officially launched in Afghanistan on Thursday.

Hundreds of supporters from around the country converged on the streets on Thursday morning to attend the launch of the movement, called Omid-e-Sabah.

Khalid said their focus will be on security and peace in Afghanistan.

He said they would do everything to help end the war in the country but that they want peace to come in a dignified manner and that all Afghans be involved in the process.

According to him the only way for the country to resolve the current crisis is through fair and transparent elections.

Khalid stated the security situation is deteriorating day-by-day and that national unity is being affected.

On the subject of elections, Khalid questioned the Independent Election Commission’s claims that over nine million people have registered to vote. He said he doubts there are even two million registered voters.

But according to him Omid-e-Sabah has a long-term plan and the movement will follow this accordingly.

Khalid meanwhile told his supporters that he is a military man and not a politician but because of the situation in the country he has decided to step into the political arena and start this movement.

He also questioned the state of the country and the deterioration in security under President Ashraf Ghani’s rule.

Khalid blasted the president and said the president does not care about lives being lost and that no one even returns the bodies to the families of soldiers killed on the battlefields

He said ethnic division in the country must end and that there was no way he wanted the country to return to the turmoil experienced throughout the 1990s.

During the Taliban’s rule, Khalid served with the anti-Taliban resistance as part of the Ittihad faction. After the fall of the Taliban regime, Khalid worked with the National Directorate of Security, but shortly afterwards became governor of Ghazni province, a post he held until 2005.

After a re-shuffle in 2005 by then president Hamid Karzai, Khalid was transferred from Ghazni province to Kandahar province as the new governor. As governor, he said he believed in the coordination of international and national efforts in bringing stability to Afghanistan.

In early 2007, Khalid escaped an assassination attempt. He was targeted by a Taliban suicide bomber and his motorcade was destroyed but he survived with only minor injuries.

Khalid was appointed as Minister of Tribal and Border Affairs in 2008.

In 2011 besides being in-charge of the ministry, he was appointed as special representative of the president for Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul and Uruzgan provinces.

In October 2011 Khalid survived another attempt on his life. A year later, in September 2012, the National Assembly of Afghanistan approved him as head of the NDS.

A year later, on 6 December 2012, Khalid survived yet another failed Taliban assassination attempt on his life.