At a very stressing period in Afghanistan war, the world is vigilantly watching the trend of happenings here. The decade-long exhausting mission is getting increasingly heavy for the international troops contributors to Afghanistan. President Obama's 2009 strategic plan for Afghanistan gave a kick-start to announcing withdrawal plans by NATO countries.
Since 2014 became the deadline for full withdrawal of foreign troops, world efforts turned more focused on resourcing localization of the process. Despite its overconfidence about ANSF capacity, President Karzai's government has hidden no fear of possible chaotic outturn in the post-2014 era. Announcing plans for earlier withdrawal, the world is downplaying fragility of the situation and the ideological extremism hotbeds in the Afghanistan and in the region.
Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, on Tuesday, announced her government's plan to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. The process is set to be completed next year. However, she did not obscure the fear on Afghanistan's ill-fated democracy. Gillard's plan waits for Karzai's announcement on Afghan forces capability to undertake responsibility in Uruzgan Province.
Bulk of Australia's 1,550 troops is stationed there. This should not to be ignored that Urozgan remains one of the most insecure places. Local sympathy with Taliban is still very high in some parts of the province and Taliban are strongly backed by local leaders who are obsessed by the corruption of local government and poor public services.
On the other hand, pro-government local civilians are frequently repressed by Taliban militants. A number of violent incidents have taken place against local civilians to whom the fingers are pointed for supporting government and foreign forces.
'The Australian', the biggest-selling national newspaper in Australia, reported a mass slaughter of 11 innocent civilians in Urozgan that indicated the severe condition of local civilians who are blamed for their pro-democracy and human rights moves.
A number of other news media have regularly covered security and human rights incidents in the restive province. It was just last year when hundreds of families were forced to mass migrate from the province only because of their support for, peace, human rights and democracy.
Nothing has changed in Urozgan today. Taliban are still an imminent threat for the pro-democracy locals who have got no other choices than to abandon the area or face regular threats. No need to say, the foreign forces will one day have to leave the country but a premature withdrawal from the insecure areas will let terrorism and violence get rooted further and ultimately spread violence across the country. Alike many parts of the country, several indications are calling for a precautious decision on security and the human rights issues in Urozgan.