Targeted killing continue unabated in Afghanistan escalating waves of fear and terror across the country. A noteworthy number of high profile government officials and political figures have already been assassinated this year. On Monday December 10, Najia Siddiqi, acting head of Woman Affairs Directorate in Laghman was shot dead by insurgent while she was travelling to her office. She had replaced Hanifa Safi who was also assassinated on July 13, when a bomb attached to her car was detonated.
On the same day Siddiqi was killed, Gen Mohammad Musa Rasuli, Police Chief of Nimroz province also lost his life when his car hit a roadside bomb. Last week, Taliban attempted to kill Assadullah Khalid, Head of National Directorate of Security. He was lucky enough to survive the attack but has been seriously injured.
In other incidents this year, a number of Afghan political figures and security officials have lost their lives due to ongoing wave of targeted killings. This is a continuation of last year's episode of targeted killing which took lives of prominent faces such as Burhanuddin Rabbani, General Dawood, Jawad Zahak, Ahmad Wali Karzai and some others.
Assassinations of high profile figures are addition to the routine of killing of civilians and NATO and Afghan troops. Such killings have deep negative impacts on the economy and political environment of Afghanistan.
The trend will definitely compel businessmen, politicians and intellectuals to escape the country which is greatly damaging for a country like Afghanistan.With prevailing security condition where no one – common men to high profile figures – feels safe, talking of improvement in security situation in Afghanistan seems a only a tale of futility.
Taliban's activities are intensifying with each passing day while the Afghan government is maintaining a soft stance towards them in the hope to convince them for peace negotiations. Nonetheless, insurgents focus on weakening the Afghan government and pay no attention to the calls of present administration.
Escalation of terror attacks and deteriorating security conditions are going to have catastrophic outcomes for Afghanistan which is standing at a crucial juncture where the NATO forces are planned to withdraw by the end of 2014 after handing over all the security responsibilities to Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). The insurgents will continue targeted killings, suicide bombings, IED attacks and their other activities of terror to gain utmost benefit from the prevailing scenario.