While NATO is waiting for President Hamid Karzai to announce the second last of the five-phase transfer of security duties to Afghan forces, security in areas where the international troops have pulled out has become of great concern to locals.
While NATO is waiting for President Hamid Karzai to announce the second last of the five-phase transfer of security duties to Afghan forces, security in areas where the international troops have pulled out has become of great concern to locals.There has been a deterioration of security according to locals interviewed by Killid. Everywhere the West is being blamed for “hurrying” the hand-over process before the Afghan military and police were fully equipped to take the lead in security operations.
Kunduz where the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) took control of six districts barring Khan Abad in July this year under the third phase of the security transfer local militia and Taleban continue to make life dangerous for the people.
Ataullah from Kunduz district said in a phone interview, “Come now and see the situation in Kunduz. All the power is in the militias hands.” He believes the security transfer “took place earlier (than scheduled) and in a hurried manner”. According to him, the western forces are only concerned with pulling out of Afghanistan by 2014. They should first have taken on and tamed the “headstrong Arbaki” before handing over security responsibility to the Afghan security forces. “To put the load of war on others they (foreign forces) insisted on the transfer,” he asserts.
Dangerous to travel
People in Dasht Archi district say they have had no benefit from the transfer. Gul Agha who belongs to Kandahar village in the district says the authorities claim they are providing security. “Our situation is that it is insecure even for people to travel from Kunduz city to our district. There are masked robbers on the road who search not just the men but also the women,” he says.
Shaikh Sadrudin, district governor of Dasht Archi, confirms the roads are not policed. “We don’t have patrols,” he says. “The robbers brazenly rob vehicles and vanish before security can be rushed to the area,” he adds.
In July during the security transfer, Kunduz Governor Mohammad Anwar Jagdalak had said the ANSF must be equipped with good weapons. He said: “Despite improvements there are security problems,” he is reported saying. “The Afghan forces have the ability to resist but there is great need of training and equipment to control Badakhshan, Takhar, Baglan and Kunduz,” he told a press conference. “There is need for the establishment of a military division,” he felt.
The ANSF took control of Khost on Nov 21. Abdul Jabar Nayimi, the provincial governor, echoed his counterpart in Kunduz when he said the Afghan security forces have the ability but they need the means to fulfill their security responsibilities. On the streets there were different complaints. People say foreign troops continue to search locals on the street and in their houses.
Only in name
Mohammad Rasool Majboor, a resident of Matoon, said the transfer was only in name. “Their patrols still walk the streets in the city. They searched my taxi with their dogs. There were women with me in the taxi,” he said indignantly. “They don’t know our customs? What is this security transfer?!”
In Badghis, Qala-i-Naw, the provincial capital, and Ab Kamari district were transferred to the ANSF in the first phase of security transfer which began in July 2011. The rest of the province was brought under Afghan security control last month. However, provincial authorities say 30 percent of Badghis is under Taleban control.
Abdul Wali Saber, deputy governor of Badghis, told Killid: “Twenty five percent of Badghis is under Taleban control. In another 5 percent the Taleban are free to move around, which means the area is under the menace of the Taleban.”
Safia Aimaq, the representative of Badghis in Parliament calls the situation in the province worrying. “If there was no resistance of people, you can be sure Badghis would have fallen (to the Taleban).”
The Taleban are entrenched in Bala Murghab, Qades, Jaban and Muqur areas of the province.
Uruzgan was transferred to the ANSF on July 17 this year under the third phase of the transition process.
No improvement
Jawed who lives in Uruzgan told Killid, “I think the security transfer took place hurriedly in Uruzgan.” According to him, the foreign forces in the province had not been able to ensure security. “There has always been insecurity,” he says. “Afghan forces must be ready qualitatively and quantitatively to counter insecurity.”
Lugar Governor Taher Khan Sabari had told the media the transfer was pushed through prematurely but he welcomed the process. “Our request was that first the local police must be strengthened,” he said at a press conference in June this year. “Since this has not happened we don’t have a problem – we welcome the transfer process.”
Lugar resident Sayed Baktash who lives as an internally displaced person in Kabul asserts, “We can trust the transfer process and Afghan forces when the Afghan forces are given enough equipment.” Insecurity of life in Logar had forced him to flee to Kabul.
Everywhere the complaints about lack of security are similar. Shah Wali of Ghazni says, “You cannot pass Salar (district in Wardak, on the Kabul-Kandahar road) towards Ghazni. The Taleban stand everywhere.”
Sabawoon of Jalalabad is emphatic. “No change has taken place with the security transfer.”
