Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

The Media war and Public Position about It in Afghanistan

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The Media war and Public Position about It  in Afghanistan

The recent terrorist attack on Kabul University which killed 18 students with an employee and wounded nearly 40 others has raised a lot of questions, public anger and media war in the country. Though the terrorist attackers resisted against security forces about six hours, eventually it was ended with inexistency of the cruel group. The Daesh Tackfiri group immediately claimed the responsibility of the attacks while later rejected. The government has pointed the finger to the Taliban. As pointed out, the event has faced extreme public reaction in national level while other stakeholders of Afghanistan’s conflicts also orally condemned the event.  The government declared national mourning across the country but the people, especially the students’ community expressed their grievous anger through launching protects expressing their hatreds from the terrorists across the country. From Bulk to Herat, Kabul and many other parts of the country extremely condemned and also criticized the government for being unable against protection of the citizens. 
After several weeks of the event, however, the media war and accusations against each other continued which might be useful, to follow, for understanding of what is going on in the country. The government spokesman, Siddiq Sidiqi, condemned the attack on Kabul University blaming the Taliban for the attack, saying that after a heavy defeat in Helmand, the group was now in disarray and so target academic venues. Mr Siddiqui added that the Taliban had provided a safe haven for terrorist activities in Afghanistan and that they could not justify their involvement in the violence in Afghanistan by issuing a statement. Amrullah Saleh, the first vice president, also took similar stance while he has heated the recent media war. 
According to Amrullah Saleh which regularly expresses his views through his face-book account, Taliban is responsible for most of the target attacks including attacks on Kawthar Danesh educational center west of Kabul and also Kabul University.
Saleh quoted from national security forces that “The weapons left over from the terrorists do not match what was stated in the photos of the fake Daesh statement”. Thus, the photo of those published in the Daesh statement does not match the face of the terrorists who were killed. According to him, the Taliban flag was one of the important evidence found in the terrorist box. “Like other terrorist attacks, they have written their last words on the wall of the room, saying, ‘Long live the Taliban.’
In another note, Mr. Saleh said, “when the terrorist attackers saw the security forces approaching them through a hole which was made in the roof they detonated their hands with a hand grenade. This shows that they were instructed to remove their fingers to hide their footprints and fixation. “I mean, the professional suspicion is that these people have already been arrested for committing a crime and have been biometric.” The recent released video of the three men with covered face standing in front of Daesh flag and attributed the allegation of attacks on Kabul University to Taliban has also confused public opinion.
Nevertheless, the Taliban did not accept the allegations while responding with various allegations to the government. In fact, different Taliban figures from different addresses or positions responded to the allegations. They not only rejected the allegations saying that the attacks on Kabul university has nothing to do with the group, but also blamed the government saying these kinds of attacks are undoubtedly being carried out by evil elements who, after the defeat in Jawzjan and Nangarhar, the Kabul administration sheltered them in hotels so as to later hire them for such events. It seems that the Taliban group refers to those Daesh members who had surrendered to Afghan security forces. The Taliban statement also said that Kabul University was not a military target that could be justified, but the attack was carried out solely to intimidate and make political propagations.
According to public opinion these media war and allegation is very similar to the blame game between Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent years. Unfortunately, Afghanistan and Pakistan have been playing blame games for many years instead of initiating meaningful talks. As a consequence, the tensions and blame games have widened insecurity and wars in Afghanistan. Now, neither Pakistan is free from blame of Afghan public opinion concerning blind war which resulted to victimization of wet and dry in the country. In fact, the people of Afghanistan expect everyone to follow their legitimate goals through friendly ways or at least not victimize the innocent ones.
Accordingly, neither the Taliban can exculpate them from the successive carnages nor tragic event in the country nor the government can justify its inability with passive position against aggressive militant fighters. If the Taliban can exculpate themselves from attacks on Kabul University or Khawthar Danesh how they can exculpate themselves from so many attacks and killings across the country. Thus, if the government could justify the few recent events with blaming this and that, then who are responsible for protection of people in the country? Afghan people have been watching only the recent failures; they witnessed the killings of nearly 70 thousand military forces and thousand more civilians. What is the logic of security officials to justify their failure against successive tragic events? What is the logic of defensive war against aggressive war while long continued in the country?  Undoubtedly, if the leadership of security forces give proper response to the aggressive attacks on civilians now the situation was not this much critical. 

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

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