At times when the Afghan government boasts of betterment in security condition, there has been a remarkable rise in civilian casualties, automatically negating the statements of government authorities. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has registered a 16 per cent rise in the number of Afghan civilians killed or wounded during the first eight months of this year compared to the same period last year. On 2nd October, UNAMA’s Human Rights Director, Georgette Gagnon said, “Anti-government groups – which continue to deliberately target civilians – have caused the vast majority of civilian deaths and injuries. Their activities, not limited to violence, include intimidation, threat and abduction of civilians.” Continuously rising killing of civilians triggers concern among the people at times when the crucial presidential and provincial councils’ elections are just months away.
The greatest challenge for Afghanistan is holding an election in which all the people of Afghanistan can participate. This has caused some circles to call of postponing of next year polls. Nonetheless, delaying the election would mean one of the greatest historical failures for the Afghan government and its international backers. The solution lies in launching extensive and far-reaching military operations against those responsible for such a situation. The solution does not lie in freeing their prisoners to give them a hand in deteriorating the security condition even further.
As Afghanistan will near the election date, which is 5 April, 2014, the insurgent would put their utmost efforts to enhance their activities across the country. By doing so, they will try to achieve two objectives. Firstly, their purpose will be preventing people from taking part in the election process. Secondly, they would try to reach a favorable environment by the time when most of NATO troops will withdraw from Afghanistan. In their efforts to reach their objectives, the militants would never spare life of innocent people including women and children.
Not only the civilians are being killed but also Afghan National Police (ANA) and Afghan National Army (ANA) are dying at a very high rate. It is estimated that every week, about a hundred police or soldiers die in clashes with Taliban, roadside bombs and other kinds of attacks. The condition is so despite the presence of tens of thousands of international forces in Afghanistan.
After withdrawal of NATO troops, the security condition in Afghanistan is expected to further deteriorate. All hopes lie in the next elections. It is hoped that the new government can handle the country’s affairs in a better way and would be able to gain continued support from the international community to eliminate terrorism.