As feared, The Grand Tribal Council or ‘Loya Jirga’ became the target of terrorists, claiming the lives of ten people and dozens were left injured. Majority of the deceased were the road-side vendors or pedestrians and two police personnel were also included among the dead. According to the reports, a vehicle was asked to stop for checking and instead of stopping, it accelerated its speed.

Policemen opened fire on the vehicle and in the end, the explosive-laden vehicle exploded on the side of the road which was not more than 200 meters away from the spot of grand council. It is worth mentioning here that from many days, police and other law-enforcement agencies had adopted strict security measures in the area and vehicles entering the area were checked at many different places. In such circumstances, it is not understandable that how a vehicle completely laden with explosives made its way through all the checkpoints and had almost reached the point of meeting of council before it exploded on side of the road.

It is the sixth time that Grand Tribal Council is being held and on last five occasions, many terrorist attempts were made to sabotage these gatherings that resulted in the death and injuries of dozens of innocent civilians and members of police and security forces. It was hoped that, having a look at the previous experiences, police and other security agencies would make necessary preparations to avert any such attack, especially when Taliban had threatened to carry out attacks on the Jirga. The attack shows that there are still some gaps in the security measures and these gaps were used by terrorists to give their intentions a practical shape.

The responsibility of this attack has been claimed by Taliban while President Karzai has once again asked Taliban to sit and share their views so that the problems of country should be solved with peace and mutual agreement. On the other hand, there has not been any positive reply from Taliban leadership in this regard and yesterday’s attack came as a clear negative answer from them.

It is also strange that in presence of such tight security measures, how a vehicle could enter and reach to such sensitive spots. Some people doubt on the ability of police while others regard it as the act of those who have infiltrated the lines of police and government and who work to carry out the agenda of terrorists. A proper investigation of attack must be undertaken so that responsible culprits should be identified and good lesson should be taught to avoid any such incident in future.