At the end of Heart of Asia Conference in Amritsar, India, 14 regional countries, that are the members of the process, adopted a declaration and called for an immediate end to all forms of terrorism and its financial support. The participating countries agreed upon the "gravity of the security situation in Afghanistan in particular and the region and the high level of violence caused by the Taliban, terrorist groups including Daesh and its affiliates, the Haqqani Network, al-Qaeda, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, East Turkistan Islamic Movement, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, TTP, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, Jundullah and other foreign terrorist fighters.”
It is really threatening to see amassing of terrorism within Afghanistan with each passing day. It is the time in Afghanistan when the scenario should be going through improvements and efforts should be made to stabilize the situation. The coming few years are really very important and will decide the future of the country. The real transition is going on; there are great changes expected and if Afghanistan's socio-political scenario is not grounded on stable footings, expectation for a peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan would be just a wool-gathering. There has been increase in the last few months in the different forms of insurgency; and people from different factions have been targeted. The number of attacks on both the Afghan forces and civilian has increased; and there are different indications in the form of conservative and violating practices throughout the country that show that Talibanization is on the rise and will keep on rising unless somber efforts are made to control the drift. The support of the regional countries stands paramount in this regard.
Though the regional countries promisingly declared, "We demand an immediate end to all forms of terrorism, as well as all support to it, including financing of terrorism. We recognize that terrorism is the biggest threat to peace, stability and cooperation in our region. We encourage the international community to continue to assist the Government of Afghanistan. We strongly call for concerted regional and international cooperation to ensure elimination of terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations, including dismantling of terrorist sanctuaries and safe havens in the Heart of Asia region, as well as disrupting all financial, tactical and logistical support for terrorism. In this regard, we call upon all states to take action against these terrorist entities in accordance with their respective national counter terrorism policies, their international obligations and the UN Global Counter Terrorism Strategy 2006. Furthermore, we encourage early finalization of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism with consensus."
However, it remains of utmost importance that the countries must pursue their promises with honesty and determination. Because with the deterioration of peace and tranquility in Afghanistan there are dangers that terrorism may continue and it will ultimately influence all the regional countries. More importantly, the terrorism has to be rooted out because of the fact that it has been influencing the lives of the common people of Afghanistan to a great extent. Innocent civilians have paid a very heavy price for the prevailing conditions. They are basically the ones who have been suffering and may suffer to a further extent if instability and terrorism prevail in the country. It is really pathetic to see the civilians losing their lives when they have nothing to do with the war. As wars and clashes for decades have torn certain parts of the country and incapacitated the infra-structure in Afghanistan, people have not only suffered the hardships of the poor and miserable lives but also the horrors of war.
One of the reasons of the rise and swelling wave of terrorism is because of the indications that Taliban have been able to grow largely in the recent few years. The transition period, instead of pointing towards progress and improvement, seems to be going the other way. In fact the overall process of transition does not seem to be working well. This period did not have to be only a transfer of security responsibility from international forces to Afghan forces, rather it should have been comprehensive enough to include within its folds the overall political and economic stability and better life opportunities for all the Afghan people.
Nevertheless, there should be efforts both from the regional countries and the international community as per their promises to change the circumstance in Afghanistan in true sense. Eradication of terrorism stands as the top priority matter and the real transition period should make the country move towards a terrorism free country, and make efforts for better governance, justice and rule of law. The post transition period in Afghanistan has to be a period that can give poverty stricken Afghan people their basic requirements; provide them better representation and participation in political and social life; make them capable of governing themselves appropriately.