LASHKARGAH Hundreds of residents of southern Helmand province on Tuesday staged a protest rally against what they claimed the killing and wounding of 40 people in a security forces airstrike.
The protestors said the dead and wounded included women and children who were travelling in a vehicle in Musa district when an airstrike hit their pick up vehicle late Sunday night.
Abdul Wali, a protestor, told Pajhwok Afghan News the government should stop killing civilians otherwise it would produce bad consequences. He said, “Only innocents are targeted in nighttime operations.”
Another protestor and civil society activist, Abdulaq Zwakman, said security forces and Taliban militants paid no attention to civilian lives. He said civilian causalities were no more tolerable.
Another protestor and a parliament member from Helmand, Mullah Shir Mohammad Akhundzada, said if such incidents went unnoticed, the Helmand residents would not take part in next week’s election.
He said no Al-Qaeda member had been arrested in the area but the raid took place on civilians.
A number of other residents held similar views and urged the government to award stern punishment to the perpetrators of the incident. (Pajhwok)