Everyday our beloved country bleeds with blood of innocents either civilians or security officials while serving their motherland. The insurgents are exerting their might to let unity government to subjugate their say. Sunday turned out to be another unfortunate day for Kabul residents –it was early in the morning when car laden with arms and explosives struck a convoy of foreign troops in a busy part Juy-e-Shir area in the city center near a market of central Kabul. Soon after the blast security forces and ambulances were horning down to the site to rescue the injured. The explosion injured seven civilians, including a child and woman, car bombing that targeted British troop carriers in central Kabul. It reflects as if the insurgents are using their full capacity to let the government know of their in-depth presence.
Formerly, Taliban had launched storming attack, involving hundreds of fighters on the northern Afghan city of Kunduz that finally fell to Taliban. Subsequent to overrunning Kunduz, Taliban made resilient victory capturing Baharak district of Badakhshan Province and Kohistanat district of northern Sar-i-Pul province. The Badakhshan provincial council had testified Taliban are making gains in some other parts of the province after taking control of Wardoj and Baharak. Ministry of Defense has confirmed that after a large-scale military operation, Afghan National Securiy Forces (ANSF) managed to retake Baharak district in the north-eastern Badakhshan province.
The ongoing war in Kunduz between insurgents and forces has seized large number of civilians –great numbers have succeeded fleeing the warzone and other are till date managing to escape. It is said that after heavy fight between insurgents and security forces that steadily pushed back insurgents in the battle-weary city of Kunduz. Conversely the desperate residents have complained of scarcity of basic amenities of life. The Minister of Refugees and Repatriation Sayed Alimi Balkhi states 20,000 families have displaced in the Kunduz crisis. Meanwhile, as the number of people fleeing Kunduz rises, and the need for aid increases, the World Food Program (WFP) announced it was seriously concerned about the safety and food security of the people remaining behind in the battle-torn city.
Earlier Taliban insurgents stormed a prison in the capital of central Ghazni province releasing about 350 prisoners. According to officials, the prison housed 436 prisoners in total of which 355 escaped during the siege. The security officials declared at least 148 to be a serious threat to national security. It was cautioned the Taliban set free would cause serious blow to the already volatile security situation of the country. The seizure of such a city justifies the said reservations.
As widespread clashes between Taliban and ANSF continue in Kunduz, displaced families, who fled over the past Two weeks, staged a demonstration in Kabul in an effort to mount pressure on government do more in a bid to clear the strategic town from the Taliban. Protesters blocked several roads connecting the presidential palace and office of the chief executive to traffic and chanted slogans against Pakistan and the Taliban. They asked government to act and clear the city from Taliban so that displaced families could return to their homes. Some other protesters accused the government of not been able to provide necessary aid to displaced families.
Meanwhile, some Afghan lawmakers in parliament have also blamed government of negligence over the issue of displaced Kunduz people. Kunduz city collapsed to the Taliban nearly two weeks ago after the group’s fighters backed with heavy and light weapons launched a major offensive from three directions. The collapse of Kunduz is said to be one of the major gains Taliban has made over the past fourteen years since a US-led NATO coalition toppled the regime in 2001.
The Taliban multidirectional attack leading to conquest of strategic city of Kanduz came prior to Afghanistan’s CEO’s address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). During his address to the UNGA, Dr. Abdullah had called on Pakistan to keep its promise to crack down on Islamic extremists blamed for carrying out cross-border attacks and destabilizing the impoverished war-torn country. Abdullah said without external support “this guerrilla-style low intensity warfare would have been history by now.” Admitting the Taliban is equipped with latest weaponries, familiar with war tactics and supported by some of states or groups, unless is responded uniformly by all section of Afghan society, may not be weakened.
Taliban following the news of demise of Mullah Omar and selection of Mullah Akhthar Mansoor tries to win their horrific disposition and let Afghan government know Taliban is not weakened and should not be deemed out of race. The series of storming attacks on potential sites is meant to be back to power either through use of force or negotiation inclined to their demands. The government falling short of proper security arrangement and curbing capacity may be left to surrender to majority demands of Taliban if peace talk is staged.
The countless efforts made by security official at the scene are laudable who strived hard to contain the militants at minimum harms and succeeded to some extent. However, serious questions related to plagued performance of security forces at entrances and deficient intelligence reports are raised that seemed short of timely co-ordination. How an explosive, automatic guns and suicide jackets laden car could easily passes the security check points? Why there was no intelligence report prior to the incidence?
If the aforementioned drifts are not bridged then the future prospects of a perpetual deteriorated state of affairs can not be ruled out.