Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, April 25th, 2024

In the eve of New Security Crisis on the Most Harmless People of Afghanistan

In last few weeks, Taliban has meaningfully attacked on central area of Afghanistan with imposing dozens of deaths and injuries on civilians. Two weeks ago several killed and injured in the Baba village of Jaghori. According to the latest local reports, Taliban has warned the people of Baba, Hecha and Pathu and started newly movements in the vicinities of these areas. Four days ago, they attacked on district of Nawmish located in the border area between Daikundi and Helmand and then eleven civilians and passengers were killed as a result of their cultivated land mines. Accordingly, a relatively larger attack carried out in Patu district of Daikondi province that left five deaths and four others wounded.  The latest but the most important attack that the Taliban has organized with the help of so-called Kuchi (nomads) was launched in areas of Behsood district of Maidan Wardak province. Unfortunately, about ten people have been killed and several injured in the attack.
In November 2018, Taliban launched massive attacks on these areas, especially Jaghori, Malistan and Uruzgan; they wanted to expose their power and open their way through the central area to the northern regions of the country but with resistance of people and government forces, Taliban could not reach their goals. However, people suffered a lot of human and none human losses as a result of Taliban aggression on harmless people. However, if the government could move quicker, the Taliban attack would be neutralized without heavy casualties and displacement of residents of these districts. As a result, nearly 5000 families were displaced, hundreds of houses were burnt or destroyed, public services such as schools, universities, local businesses all were stopped for months in the areas. 
After they were defeated by government and people resistant groups, they started kidnapping, looting and harassing the passengers and resident of Jaghori and Malistan along the Jaghori and Ghazni route. According to travelers from Dashte Qarabagh, Taliban has forced them to pay ransom and reportedly the issue has intensified in few last weeks. However, the blockade of the road has always been used as leverage and tactics of the Taliban over the residents of these areas. Repeatedly, Taliban has applied economic sanctions and used roads and killing passengers as means of pressurizing government and people. Reportedly, over the past 18 years, about 1,000 passengers have been killed by the Taliban in Dasht Qarbagh. Generally, they have used every means to put pressure on the government and people while the routes of the Hazara district of Ghazni province which were crossing from territory of foreign Taliban were more insecure. 
Now with start of warm season and Taliban’s new war strategies, these areas once again are witnessing meaningful targets and bloody attacks.  The most controversial and strategic spot in this area is Maidan Wardak province where over the past years has been the scene of conflict over the land and pasture between the residents and Kuchi armed forces. Behsud district is important because the Taliban are organizing attacks in these areas in co-operation with Kuchis, and on the other hand, foreign intelligent networks are also blamed for fuelling the conflicts in this specific area.  Moreover, this issue can provoke ethnic conflicts in the country if the government does not immediately proceed to solve the long continued problems.
Given the changes that are taking place in the entire region, and given the interests of neighboring countries in terms of ethnic and religious tensions in Afghanistan, any attempt to flare up war in the central regions of Afghanistan is considered as an ethnic and religious war in the country. Those who have been trying to provoke the historic and religious conflicts through social media networks and other tools, are becoming more active to spread ethnic hatreds and divisions. Because of these sensitivities, Taliban has deliberately chosen this area so as to impose heavy expenses on people and government of Afghanistan.
In recent years, with mobilizing these sensitivities Taliban has succeeded to intensely misuse this weakness. Regarding conflicts between Kuchi and residents that took place during Karzai government, the political and economic mafia collected a lot of money under this name but the cost were paid by people. Given the pledges of the president Ghani durign the last presidential elections complains for finding a permanent solution to solve this problem, slightly it decreased the tensions. But now it seems that bigger hands are behind the scene, and a larger scenario is being developed in the area.  In the current conflict, the regional intelligence networks and even international terrorist groups are seemingly more involved than individuals. Those who guide the Taliban how to organize these attacks are fully aware of all these sensitivities that can lead to a terribly dreadful war in the country.
Given the mentioned points, the government must pay more attention to these areas and manage the situation well before it get out of the control. Unfortunately, in the Behsood attacks the security forces are not present in the area yet, and the war is ledF by the Behsood Resistance Front which increases the sensitivities. It seems that the only way to contain these conflicts and misuses is deployment of an army unit and the expansion of the people uprisings within the framework of the country’s security institutions. Otherwise, in the near future, we may see a security crisis in these areas, which is very different from the crisis in the whole country. Then it will be too late to manage the crisis.