After about 12 years of armed campaign against terrorism, Afghanistan is increasingly a dangerous country. People cannot take sigh of relief even in its capital Kabul, let alone the other provinces the country. Police check posts at every few kilometers, security barriers, blockades, fences and concrete walls in every street and the noise created by sirens of military rangers passing every now and then give Kabul the look of a city at the state of war. Despite strict security arrangements in this city, the insurgents reach their targets crossing all the obstacles and by cheating the security forces and intelligence personnel. They are no less than magicians!

The recent attack on the Lebanese restaurant located in the highly fortified area of Wazir Akbar Khan took lives of at least 21 people including foreign nationals and injured scores of others. Taliban have taken responsibility of the attack. This terrifying incident signals that the Taliban continuous to possess the capability of launching such coordinated attacks challenging and undermining the writ of the government in heart of Afghanistan’s capital. The incident has brought a great discredit to the government that has been releasing hundreds of insurgents from prisons over the past one year without any proper trails.

Are more such attacks yet to come? This is expected. Over the past few years, it has been observed that the Taliban almost halt their engagement in direct clashes with Afghanistan National Security Force (ANSF) in the winter season but increase their focus on launching suicide attacks in major cities of Afghanistan especially, in Kabul. Last winter, they launch a number of well-engineered attacks in Kabul targeting National Directorate of Security, Traffic Police HQ and other important government organizations. Security forces and intelligence units must go more vigilant as the probability of more terror attacks in the capital is high.

Meanwhile, it has been established that the Taliban would not spare life of anyone be it military personnel or civilians to further their fight against the government and its international backers. They have been attacking schools, offices, military caravans, bridges, common passenger vehicles and etc in all parts of the country. They kill thousands of people women and children every year. Their war is becoming dirtier with the passage of every day. The government, however, tries to keep a soft stance towards Taliban in order to nudge them into peace talks, albeit they are not worth it.