Afghanistan is going through a time of confusion and turbulence. Confusion on the part of the government and international community, which are responsible for developing an effective strategy to move the country out of the ongoing violence and insurgency and ensure a durable peace for the Afghans. It is also a time of confusion for Afghan people.

Unfortunately, the recent violent demonstrations in different provinces showed that the nonviolence is yet to take root as culture in the country. On April 01, the violent protest in Mazar-e-Sharif against Quran-burning claimed at least eight foreign UN employees. On Wednesday last week, furious anti-American protesters poured into the streets of Taloqan city of northern province of Takhar, shouting out objections to an overnight U.S. led military raid that killed four people, including two women. Subsequent clashes with security forces trying to quell the demonstration killed 12 people.

Ironically saying, the bitter fact is that Afghans get killed both in their own hands and in the hands of terrorists and insurgents. It should be an excruciating period for the country; a tragedy that is going down in the history because the violence in protests and violence by the Taliban militants produce no positive result for the country and for the future of peace to be established to replace the troubles of today.

One cannot expect the terrorists and Taliban militants not to resort to violence. It is their intrinsic and inherent feature. But Afghan people must not follow violence as a channel to pour out their grievances. Here we are reminded of the U.S. President Barak Obama's words as on Thursday last week he said in his sweeping speech on the Middle East, "Those shouts of human dignity are being heard across the region. And through the moral force of nonviolence, the people of the region have achieved more change in six months than terrorists have accomplished in decades."

Afghan people must not allow the miscreants to infiltrate them when waging peaceful demonstration to express their dissatisfaction with the Government's continued failures or to pour out their outrage against civilian killings. If the government and international community continue to fail, people must not fail. They must rise up to demand an end to the ordeals they have been put to.