“For a long time, I have not gone home (to Badakhshan). I miss my home and relatives, and I feel I am in a cage (in Kabul). I fear abduction and arrest by armed opponents (of the government) on the way there.”
These are the words of Ajmal, a young man, who is both working in Kabul and pursuing his Masters.
“For a long time, I have not gone home (to Badakhshan). I miss my home and relatives, and I feel I am in a cage (in Kabul). I fear abduction and arrest by armed opponents (of the government) on the way there.”
These are the words of Ajmal, a young man, who is both working in Kabul and pursuing his Masters.
“Once upon a time I could move around the Northern Provinces with ease; and, travel from Badakhshan to Kabul without fear. But as the abductions increased, I have put the idea of returning home out of my mind,” he told Killid.
Roads going north from the Afghan capital are not the only dangerous routes in the country. Travellers now take the road from Kabul to Jalalabad and onwards to the border at Torkham, once considered safe, at their own peril.
Ehsanullah recalls he would go to Jalalabad to picnic and walk along the waters of the Daroonta dam. The dam on the Kabul river, 7 km west of the city, was a favourite with day-trippers from all over Nangarhar province, but now no longer. He fears he could inadvertently fall prey to kidnappers. “They are like hunters snatching away the tranquility of people,” he says.
Equally dangerous are the highways from Kabul to Kandahar and to Herat. Ahmad Shah is a resident of Ghazni who has gone to Kandahar to get a visa to Iran. He says, “My journey from Ghazni to Kandahar was full of a thousand fears. When the bus stopped I started praying, fearing it was kidnappers and they would take some of us away at the flimsiest of pretexts.” Fortunately, he arrived at his destination safely, but clearly travel is a nerve-wracking business for Shah.
Daily insecurity
The dangerous highways are not the only trouble-spots for civilians. There are daily assassinations, fighting, bombings and robberies in different parts of the country including the capital Kabul. The situation is worse where there are “terrorists” like in Nangarhar where fighters swearing allegiance to ISIS have ramped up the feeling of insecurity among civilians.
Recently, young people from Nangarhar demonstrated in Kabul against the government of national unity’s failure to stop ISIS activities in their province. They warned the fighting could reach the Afghan capital if action was not taken.
Ghorzang Sial was among the protestors. He believes that if the government and US forces in Afghanistan want to, they can stop the Daesh fighters. Sidiq Ansari who heads a federation of civil society groups in Nangarhar accuses local authorities of the government of national unity based in Nangarhar of complicity with ISIS. The government should dismiss Governor Hanif Atmar and listen to the “voices of people”, he appealed. Recently, armed men claiming to be linked to ISIS abducted men and children, and killed two children.
Governor Atmar held a video conference with political and military authorities recently to urge them to root out Daesh fighters. He promised to turn the district of Koot into a “graveyard for ISIS” to avenge the deaths of people.
Meanwhile, security officials in the east say armed patrols have started scouring the countryside for Daesh. The operation began from the morning of June 27, head of Directorate of National Security in Nangarhar Dad Mohammad Harif told the press.
Governor Salim Kunduzai of Koot a nnounced “some 131 enemies were killed; 36 of them in hand-to-hand combat operations and the rest in air-strikes in the district. “Unfortunately our soldiers also lost their lives,” he said.
The security situation in Nangarhar is akin to the state of affairs in Helmand, Baghlan, Kunduz, Kandahar, Oruzgan and many other parts of the country.
Taking on the Taleban
Security forces say they have defence arrangements in place to take on a Taleban preparing to intensify attacks. At a special session of Parliament, on June 25, Masoud Andarabi, deputy director the Directorate of National Security warned, “The enemy is trying to launch attacks again in different parts of the country.”
Andarabi thinks the Taleban have been weakened by a leadership and financial crisis following the death of Mullah Akhtar Mansour and consequently, the role of the Haqqani Network is stronger. “Taleban have turned to attacks in populated centres and abducting travelers on the highways after failing to attain their goals,” he claims.
Lawmakers were told by ministers for interior affairs and defence, Taj Mohammad Jahed and Abdullah Habibi respectively, that the Taleban would be opposed. Jahed, minister for interior affairs said, “The Taleban has planned to make serious war in order to increase their foothold in districts, and (consequently) are blocking the highways, assassinating and sowing fear. Terror is their working policy.”
He called Operation Omari, the Taleban’s spring offensive to gain more territory, a failure. “They failed to attain their targets,” he said.
The newly-confirmed defence minister, meanwhile, announced security forces were changing strategy from conventional fighting to hereafter conducting guerrilla attacks. To “cut the head of the snake”, he said, and prevent the Taleban from fleeing.
But defence experts find a strategy is missing in the security forces’ handling of the situation. Atiqullah Amarkhail, a retired general and military analyst says, “Either senior military officers don’t have a plan for combating Taleban or their subordinates forces are not paying attention.”
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