The lives of the common people of Afghanistan remain threatened both by insecurity and social evils. Though they have been promised better and secure living conditions, they are yet to see anything practical in this regard. The insurgents among Taliban still remain as the dominant elements turning the lives of the people into nightmares. The latest civilian casualties occurred on Friday (February 08, 2013) evening when a private car owned by the family struck a hidden landmine in the Matakai area, of Nad Ali district in southern Helmand province, Nad Ali police chief Lt. Omar Jan Haqmal told news agencies.
He said the dead included two women, two elderly men and as many adult males, all from one family. The incident happened in the Taliban-controlled area, where the victims were travelling home from a nearby village when the blast occurred around 7pm.
The war against terrorism though has mainly targeted the insurgents, still influences the civilians to a large extent. To fight the growing terrorism that had started threatening the whole world, US and its allies chose to fight it in its shelter, which at that time was, unfortunately, Afghanistan. After the incident of 9/11 there has been a clash between the Taliban and Western forces on Afghan soil. Though in the very beginning of the war Taliban insurgents did not have much option except to flee; unfortunately, that running away was just to find refuge at a save place and return through different techniques and threaten the Western and the Afghan forces.
Instead of opting for direct war they have opted to attack through Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), suicide bombings, landmines, ambushes, targeted killings, and other tactics. Unfortunately, these tactics of them have influenced the peace and tranquility of the country to a large extent and have even influenced the social-psychology by haunting it through insecurity complex. At the same time they have taken the lives of thousands of civilians, which is the most unfortunate outcome of these filthy arrangements.
Afghanistan Natural Disaster Management Authority’s (ANDMA) director-general, Daim Khan Kakar, said last month, that nearly one million Afghans are living in mined areas in different parts of the country. “Around 599 square kilometers of Afghanistan’s land is infested with mines”, Daim Khan said while addressing a ceremony in western Herat province, where three more districts were declared free of landmines and explosives.
Three years ago, 2,000 people would be killed each month due to the landmines and improvised explosives devices (IEDs) in the country, he recalled. But now the figures have decreased to 45 fatalities a month. Though there has been remarkable decrease, yet the deaths of innocent people because of wars and their adverse impacts have continued.
Landmine explosions in Afghanistan have either killed many innocent Afghans or seriously injured several others. It is claimed by war historians that Soviet Union, during the war in Afghanistan, had set thousand of landmines in different parts of the country, for which no proper maps were maintained so that they could be tracked. Taliban have also been using mines as a part of their attacks. However, it should not go unmentioned that most of them target the poor civilians. Women and children, in particular, have been victimized by their atrocities. In one of the most unfortunate events in December last year eleven minor girls were killed when a landmine exploded in the eastern province of Nangarhar. According to the reports the blast took place when the children were collecting waste materials in the Daulatzai area of Chaparhar district.
In the economically unstable and war-torn country like Afghanistan, people have not only suffered the hardships of the poor and miserable lives but also the horrors of war. They have been killed mercilessly as if their lives do not have any value or meaning and it is important to see that the Taliban are mostly behind the demise of the poor civilians. It should also be added that the poor civilians have also been influenced by insecurity in different other ways. The weaker strata, in particular, have been facing different faces of terror.
Girls and women have been targeted by the Taliban militants for the purpose of displaying their authority or maintaining pressure on national and international forces. They have also fallen victims for pursuing a normal and better life; for instance, pursuing education. They have faced acid and poison attacks, brutal violence and discriminatory behavior. It is really unfortunate to note that the Taliban still remain powerful enough to conduct their merciless efforts to target the civilians in the presence of Afghan and international forces.
Different attacks, bombings, shootings and suicide bombings of the vicious guardians of the so-called holy war have only been able to target the children, women and non-military figures. With the presence of such facts, it is weird to find Taliban calling themselves friendly to Afghan people.
Taliban, on various occasions, have claimed that they would not target the civilians directly but the reality about attempts mentioned above is totally against what is claimed by them. Though a recent UN report revealed that there has been a decline in the civilian casualties in the ongoing year as compared to the same period last year, the concerns still remain very much disturbing as the number of civilians being killed as a result of insurgency still remains very high. The report also disclosed that about 80 percent of the civilian-killings resulted from the attacks of the Taliban insurgents.
Civilian killings, therefore, clearly depict that Taliban do not care much about the civilian casualties; what they mostly care about is their threat and dominancy over the security arrangements. The above mentioned report also depicted that the IEDs still remain the most deadly for civilians as they caused 29 percent of the casualties.
Taliban, recently, have been trying to develop an image of caring and affectionate body that is trying to liberate the people of Afghanistan from the Western forces. But the fact is just on the contrary. They just want power and for that they will never hesitate to sacrifice the poor Afghan people. They will definitely, like cowards, target the weaker strata as they do not have proper security to guard themselves and are easy targets. If Taliban come to power, it is evident that Afghan people will never have peace, contentment and above all their due rights.