The holy month of Ramadan – bloodier this year for Afghans – is about to end and the Muslim World is going to celebrate Eid ul Fitre in the beginning of next week. Ramadan and Eid hold significant importance for the Muslims, especially for Afghanistan where more than 99 percent of population is formed by Muslims. Throughout Ramadan, Afghans prayed for peace and solidarity in Afghanistan.
Not only that, they have kept praying for peace in the last 32 years but peace is never coming. Terror attacks in the holy month establish the fact that Taliban are the enemy of the people of Afghanistan and their religion. The worst attack by Taliban came on Tuesday when a single blast resulted in the killing of more than two dozen of innocent Afghans.
The promises of long term peace and stability by different stake holders involved in Afghanistan and international community have lost their colors as their promises have remained promises only and have not been given any practical shape.
Afghanistan continues to be growingly caught into insurgency and faces a very bleak future at a time when its government is extremely week and the NATO forces are set to withdraw by the end of 2014. The insurgents have intensified their attacks on Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and their NATO counterparts. This is what the NATO itself has reported.
The US-led coalition reported on 27 July that insurgent attacks in Afghanistan during the past three months were up 11 percent, compared to the same period last year, according to the latest statistics on monthly violence released by the U.S.-led coalition.
This shocking uptick speaks of Taliban strength. The insurgents remain quite potent to give a tough time to international troops and ANSF. In related statistics, 206 Afghan soldiers were killed from March 20 until June 20, according to the Afghan National Army (ANA).
Taliban were defeated in 2001. They were under-estimated at that time. Here is where the mistake was made. Taliban has turned into a powerful enemy of peace and democratic gains of Afghanistan. Be it security or economy, in Afghanistan no fundamental and long-lasting development is observable.
When a common Afghan has to suffer due to the worst security condition, grave poverty and various sorts of other social and economic challenges, then talking about development is all futile. In the decade-long US anti-terrorism war in Afghanistan, it cannot say it is winning it.