The Afghan police have announced: Any one with solid information about terrorists will be awarded AFA one million. This scheme is laudable. The reporting by local Afghans about suspicious people would result in prevention of terror attacks and would save lives of innocent civilians. In an Afghan society, it is very difficult for security forces to recognize the insurgent who hide among civilian population wearing clothing similar to that of local people.
It is the common Afghans who have better knowledge about people activities in their districts. Therefore, they are important source of gathering useful information about insurgents' hideouts.
Earlier this year, ISAF had said that local Afghans were turning against Taliban and al Qaida. The local people in Helmand punished two Taliban commanders to death a few months back. It seem like, now Afghans cooperate more than before by providing information about insurgents.
That is good news as it means the public outreach programs through TV and Radio channels launched by ISAF and Afghan government have started giving results. Success in Afghanistan seems to be improbable to achieve without winning the trust of the people.
The increasing trend among people to cooperate with government also indicates that Afghans are tired of long term conflicts and fights. Now they want peace and harmony to prevail in their lives. Also, majority of Afghans are in favor of long term international presence in their country.
That is because withdrawal of international community without having fixed major issues here would result in further destruction of Afghanistan which is neither in benefit of Afghans nor the world.
Public awareness program must continue. Still the Taliban have many people on their side. Taliban preach against foreign presence in Afghanistan, try to motivate common Afghans towards fight against westerners and do whatsoever it can to recruit more people into their ranks.
This process will continue for many other years. It is necessary to open the minds of people and make them clearly distinguish between a democratic system and Taliban's rule.