Policemen are Also Sons of this Soil
Referring to civilian casualties by foreign forces, once, perhaps on the day Osama Bin Laden was killed, President Hamid Karzai said that he has never complained and would never complain about the killing of police and national army. He wanted to say to the world and international community that if the police personnel and army soldiers are killed by the insurgents, this is because they are in uniform defending the country and protecting the people but it is not tolerable for Afghanistan to see the civilian casualties caused by the foreign forces during counter-insurgency operations or strikes.
It is really good to put pressure on the foreign forces to use maximum cautions to avoid civilian deaths, which continue to serve as a cause of public outrage in the country. But it is equally important and even more necessary to increase pressure on the Taliban militants that kill both civilians and police personnel and other security forces who are also the sons of this soil.
President Karzai may not complain or raise his voice about the martyrdom of police and national army soldiers by the Taliban militants and insurgents but he has to figure out measures to make sure that they do not continue to get killed just because of his ineffective leadership and his unproductive policy of reconciliation and reintegration, which has just emboldened the enemies that leave no stone unturned to cause or inflict as many casualties as possible.
On Monday May 09, 2011, about 6 police personnel were killed in Ghazni province. At least four other police personnel were wounded in the incident. The ongoing violence shows that Taliban are trying to use all what they have in their capacity to implement their spring offensive agenda. On Tuesday, May 10, 2011, hundreds of Taliban insurgents attacked security posts near Paroon, the capital of eastern Nuristan province, which borders Pakistan's Chitral district. The attack sparked a fierce battle between the police forces and the militants. According to reports nearly 400 insurgents attacked police posts in Chitrash and Koshtal areas. There is a pressing need to bring the ongoing violent situation under control. If the policy of appeasement and other form of weaknesses continues, the very "disgruntled brothers" will bring the situation under their control.
Special Tribunal and Continuous Hullabaloo
Sept. 18, 2010, Afghan parliamentary election was riddled with vagueness and allegations about its legitimacy. And both the Afghan Independent Election Commission (IEC) and Electoral Complaint Commission (ECC) were severely criticized about the claimed inability to deal with electoral fraud and realize justice. But commissions strongly stood and responded that election held was the only possible transparent and democratic under prevalent circumstances. But the controversies have never come to an end, and candidates failed to recline on their self-expected parliamentary seats never came short of pouring fuels to sparked legal and political controversy.
President Hamid Karzai, who was completely inconvenient with the election result, established the 'special tribunal court of law'. This tribunal fuelled further controversies within and outside of government circles. Parliamentarians, since its very establishment, said that the special tribunal court of law was against the constitution and its rulings had not legal justification. Meanwhile, there were others who claimed that special tribunal is based on the constitution. According to this layer's view, both election commissions derive their legitimacy from the President's mandate. Thus the tribunal can be recognized as a legal institution and derives its legitimacy from the same source as that of IEC and ECC.
These two contradictory views are not finalized till present after passing months, and obstacles brought about by this controversy have remained unsolved. While Parliamentarians several times have instantly asked president to dissolve the tribunal court but he turned deaf ears. And while MPs held their posts and continue to discharge the assigned tasks and, meantime, the special court has been busy probing cases linked to electoral fraud. Thus, the most complicated question remained unanswered is what would happen if the investigation found out documents which discredit votes gained by this and that MP. Will he or she be unseated? If so, will MPs accept the ruling and easily stay out?
The recent hearsay about find-out of special court and its likely announcement has tremendously sparked anxiety and anger among MPs. Many MPs have claimed that they had accurate information that more than 80 MPs were going to be unseated on the basis of special tribunal court investigation. The number is confusing large, assuming the allegation true. Almost one third of Parliament Members are going to be unseated. However, far probable, doing so will be unique in its kind. It is understandable that waging such a psycho war in the political realm can assure the political interests of influential individuals but, regretfully, turns out consequential for people of Afghanistan. The presidential election was held in 2009, isn't a shame having left ministry posts' vacant till present, 2011? Rather than doing something real in order to complete the members of his cabinet, he makes some grubby scramble to dishearten his oppositions in Parliament.
Engagement of Minors in Terrorism has Horrifying Prospects
It is not new. Children and minors have been utilized for various crimes since long - bribery, selling drugs, sexual abuse etc and now increasingly for executing terror attacks mainly suicidal ones. Countries of the world - mainly developed and under developed nations - have set their feet on the rights of children, albeit almost all nations have signed international regulations on rights of children.
In Saudi Arabia, for example, children trafficked from third world countries are used as camel jockeys. Al-Qaida have been recruiting and training children for terror attacks. It initiated this trend. In the recent years, the Taliban too, have increasingly engaged children and teenagers in their group. Expressing concern on this, President Hamid Karzai has said the use of children and youths in terrorist attacks—who did not know the difference between right and wrong—was inhumane and against all Islamic principles. Recently in Paktika, according to reports, a 12-year-old child was used to carry suicide attack that killed 4 and injured 12. The intelligence directorate reported that it has arrested several youngsters at Torkham border who it said were sent to execute suicide attacks in Afghanistan. Taliban have denied this. But their denial is negated by the facts on the ground.
This is a very dangerous trend. Already the children in Afghanistan are suffering due to lack of security and poor economic condition, their use in crimes, specifically, terrorism would have horrifying prospects. Afghanistan's future is highly dependent on the children nurturing today. Attempts of militants to develop extremism among the children and youth may have far destructing outcomes for us. Such acts by Taliban further prove that they do not belong to religion of Islam, as Islam completely bans violence on children and their use in crimes.
The human rights organizations have kept quiet on the issue of children being used for terrorism. This act of Taliban needs to widely condemned and the people who have somehow positive ideas about Taliban should be made to realize that Taliban are terrorists and can be no one's friend.
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