Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Tuesday, March 19th, 2024

Taliban Continues War Despite Muslim Demand for Peace

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Taliban Continues War Despite Muslim Demand for Peace

Despite the collective will of Muslim people for peace, Taliban continues war in various parts of Afghanistan. In fact, most of Muslim people including prominent religious scholars, peace activists, civil society groups, men and women have unanimously called on Taliban to stop war but they still persist on their deadly attacks. In addition to Afghani, Pakistani and Indonesian religious scholars, the Imam of Harmain Sharifain, in his Friday sermon, prayed for lasting peace in Afghanistan and urged truce extension in Afghanistan. While Taliban frequently ignored them all;Afghan Defense Ministry said dozens of security force members have been martyred in Taliban attacks in the past four days in at least 10 provinces. They did not, however, provided the exact number of casualties. “We have had casualties during the (past) week, but in the past 24 hours, we imposed casualties on those who acted against the ceasefire,” Tolo News quoted Mohammad Radmanish, the Defense Ministry spokesman as saying.
Ghani on June 17 announced a 10-day extension on government’s ceasefire and also urged the Taliban to extend their three-day ceasefire. The Taliban, however, has not yet responded and instead continues to carry out attacks across the country. This came in the backdrop of an initial truce which was observed by both sides over the Eid festival period. The Taliban on June 9 announced a three-day ceasefire over the Eid holiday, two days after Ghani announced the ceasefire from the 27th of Ramzan (June 12) to the fifth day of Eid-ul-Fitr (June 19).
It was the first time the Taliban had agreed to a ceasefire for Eid since the US invasion in 2001.
Taliban fighters kidnapped 43 people from a road construction camp during a raid in southern Afghanistan that also killed four security forces, an official said on Friday, in the latest fighting since the group’s ceasefire ended.Militants attacked the camp in Spin Boldak district in Kandahar province overnight, provincial governor spokesman Dawood Ahmadi said. Among the 43 kidnapped were technical workers, cooks and drivers. Four police were killed and another wounded after security forces sent to rescue the workers exchanged gunfire with the Taliban, Ahmadi added.The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, but said that the original target had been a police checkpoint.Police fled the checkpoint and went to the camp where the construction workers were sleeping. The Taliban pursued the police but, unable to identify who was who, decided to kidnap “many” people, the group said.
Many accuse the government for inability and non-transparency for the peace process. A number of Afghan parliament members on Saturday said that the government were attempting to grant some territories to Taliban, insisting that the move was a betrayal to the people and the efforts of Afghan security forces. “Efforts are underway to grant some areas to the Taliban and it’s a betrayal to the blood of the security forces,” said MP Gulam Hussain Nasiri. “Within a few hours, sixteen security points were collapsed in Jalriz district [of Some members of the Wolesi Jirga or Lower House of the Parliament said that allocating Taliban should not be part of the deal to facilitate peace talks with the militant group.“We want peace, but we don’t accept sacrificing everything [in the process]. How we should handover territories to the armed opposition forces and government wants to do this for the sake of ensuring peace talks with the Taliban,” said MP Abdul latif Pedram. MP Fawzai Kofi, meanwhile, said the people and parliament should be informed of the moves being taken by the government in the peace process.
The Chairman of the house, Abdul Raouf Ibrahimi, however, said that secret deals should not take place with the Taliban as he believes it will draw a lot of objections.  “We want peace and it is an essential need of our people, but we won’t accept the peace which its details not being disclosed to public. The suggestions of the government and oppositions should be specified,” he said. The MPs stressed that the ongoing war in the country has outside roots and that the peace talks with the Taliban could not be in long term unless these roots were being eradicated.
Over all, Afghan are extremely tired and angry due to endless war and rising numbers of suicide bombings and attacks, especially in recent months.  The frequent tragedies and death bodies which are usually broadcasted through media can badly affect over the psychology of the people, especially the students, teachers and economic workers are severely demotivated. When any event occurs the residents are largely following the news through T.V or their hand set mobile while the children, teenagers, elders, women, girls and all witness insecurity and painful events which resulted to live in fear of the next attack.
Therefore, people are really disappointed and totally lost their trust on government; some accuse the Afghan government of having foreign spies and foreigners in the ministries, who interfere in the ministries affairs. Also (people say) there are foreigners (foreign spies) in parliament, in the senate and in other departments. Likewise, people feel that there are also foreigners inside the Taliban even at the center of the group. Neither common people are satisfied with current warring situation and nor the experts. They believe that reconciliation with terrorist groups should be handled from the position of strength, and not from the position of appeasement and weakness. Experts believe, in addition to serious fight against terrorist, we need to fight against terrorism and the root cause of challenges in order to reach sustainable solution.

Mohammad Zahir Akbari is the permanent writer of the Daily Outlook Afghanistan. He can be reached at mohammadzahirakbari@gmail.com

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