Dangerous road to transition

Thirty people were killed in suicide attacks this month. Is the situation going to worsen as predicted by US General Mark A. Milley?
On Jan 17, suicide bombers stormed a popular Lebanese restaurant in Kabul killing 21 civilians including 13 foreign nationals.

Thirty people were killed in suicide attacks this month. Is the situation going to worsen as predicted by US General Mark A. Milley?
On Jan 17, suicide bombers stormed a popular Lebanese restaurant in Kabul killing 21 civilians including 13 foreign nationals. Days later a lone attacker strapped with bombs detonated himself next to a bus carrying Afghan security forces, killing three soldiers and one journalist. The blood of the four had not yet dried when a border policeman turned attacker, and killed five colleagues.
Afghanistan is likely to witness more attacks in the coming days, targeting troops, military, government officials and Afghan and foreign civilians, Lt General Milley, the deputy commander of US troops in the country, told reporters in the Pentagon on Jan 24.
There is a spurt in violence even before the snows melt, and fighters make their way over passes into the Kabul Valley.
The Ministry of Interior Affairs (MoI) says the international community can bring peace and stability by focusing on eliminating the roots of the problem in Pakistan. According to MoI spokesperson Sediq Sediqi, “… That is when the people of Afghanistan will live in peace.”
People are scared. Abdullah, a daily wage worker, says he worries every day whether he will come home alive. Small trader Qiyamudin fears insecurity could wipe out his precarious business.
Political observers think the attacks could damage morale in the ranks of the security forces. The government has to find a way of retaining people’s confidence as disaffection could be disastrous.

Mutiny in Faryab
On Jan 27, highway police in Faryab province went on strike to protest government negligence. Six policemen resigned from the service because the government failed to assist policemen who were under attack by Taleban in the west of the province. Taleban fighters gunned down six policemen.
Faryab security-incharge, Mohammad Naeem Andarabi rejects the claims of the mutineers. Speaking through a contact he told Killid Radio in Mazar-e-Sharif that the security post was attacked by armed opponents, and has now been handed over to the ANA. Soldiers have been sent to Qaisar district.
On Jan 1, Minister of Interior Affairs Omer Daudzai urged graduating police at a ceremony in Kabul to “safeguard the country with honour like our ancestors have safeguarded”. The Ministry of Defence says new security arrangements have been put in place to tackle threats from the Taleban.
But former deputy defence minister General Atiqullah Baryalai thinks only better coordination between intelligence agencies and security forces could prevent suicide attacks.
The upswing in violence has deepened the divide between the government and the US over the signing of the contentious Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), the framework for US-NATO presence in the country from 2015.
President Hamid Karzai has condemned the recent suicide attacks, which he sees as the handiwork of “Afghanistan’s enemies” and not the Taleban.
The shadow of violence could threaten the April elections. “Suicide attacks and tensions over the BSA deepen insecurity. Though the IEC (Independent Election Commission) has promised free and transparent elections, the fear of sabotage has become great,” says Mohammad Qarabaghi, political expert.
A presidential candidate, former Nangarhar governor Gul Aqa Sherzai, has expressed reservations. “Political instability has weakened trust in the national process (elections) and the peaceful transfer of power (to Karzai’s successor).”