Save Children from Being Recruited as Suicide Attackers
There is no doubt that everyone knows about the evil nature of the Taliban. They have a destructive ideology that eliminates others. The Taliban do not believe in a dialogue among different political, social and cultural groups. They believe that all those who are unlike them must be eliminated. This ideology has manifested itself in the Taliban's involvement in massacres, and destruction of Buddha statutes during their rule, suicide attacks they have been carrying out over the last ten years.
The Taliban do not accept any role for women in the society, and even oppose girls' education. Due to this strict view, they have been burning schools and poisoning schoolchildren. The Taliban are against any manifestations of modern lifestyle. The militants employ any tactic and any means to achieve their goal. They employ women and children to carry out suicide attacks against Afghan government and international forces.
In a recent case, Afghan police in southern province of Kandahar arrested three children and teenagers while they were carrying explosives and hand-made grenades. UNICEF has expressed serious concerns over child recruitment as military forces.
According to the officials from UNICEF in Afghanistan, in 2011, 316 children under the age of 18 were employed as soldiers or as those who provide assistance in the battlefield. The arrested children in Kandahar wanted to blow up a police station.
Last week, the Taliban killed five members of a family in the Northern Province of Faryab when they refused to accommodate the militants. The victims included three women and two men. Taliban are now hated by Afghan people.
Grown tired of the Taliban's restrictions, people in Ghazni have revolted against the militants because they did not want to keep their children deprived of education, and their healthcare centers and bazaars to be closed. Those who have risen against the Taliban do not accept President Karzai's government.
This shows that President Karzai's government has failed to provide support and protection to the people against the Taliban. Instead, the government has tried to humanize the Taliban's brutality by calling them as unhappy brothers.
In order to save Afghan children from being recruited as suicide attackers by the Taliban, President Karzai must launch an anti-Taliban discourse and mobilize the people against them. The President must choose between his unhappy brothers and saving Afghan people, in particular the children.
Afghan Refugees’ Problem Needs UrgentSolution
Pakistan has generously hosted huge number of Afghan refugees in the last three decades. Afghans and Pakistanis have a great number of commonalities such as, religion, culture, language and tradition. Meanwhile, Afghanistan's longest border is with Pakistan stretching to 2430 km. Such facts have allowed the Afghan people to comfortably live with their Pakistani counterpart over a long term. Nonetheless, it seems like the Pakistani government is now running out of patience.
Some 400,000 unregistered Afghan refugees are facing possible deportation from Pakistan after a deadline for them to register expired on June 30. In Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Afghans are being arrested for court appearance and deportation. Being an Afghan refugee has never been easy.
The current move by Pakistani authorities is to add to the anguish of Afghan refugees in that country. Pakistan is home to saome 1.7 million registered Afghan refugees. The Pakistani officials say they can no longer carry the burden of an additional 400,000 undocumented Afghans in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Majorityof the Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran think they would not be able to earn a livelihood in their own country due to high rate of unemployment. The bad security is also keeping them away from their homeland. Over the last decade, the government of Afghanistan has failed to resolve the grave challenges facing the Afghan refugees.
Although since early 2002, more than 5 million Afghans have been repatriated through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) from both Pakistan and Iran back to their native country; their number has gone decreasing over the last few years.
UNHCR, the Afghan Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation and Pakistan government must come together and find a more appropriate solution to the problem of unregistered Afghan refugees living in Pakistan. It would be almost impossible for the Afghan government to manage for food, shelter and health services if large numbers of refugees are sent back to Afghanistan all at once.
Meanwhile, the Afghan government has to take such issues serious and work not only to encourage Afghan refugees return home but also provide them with employment opportunities so that they can stand on their own feet and are not compelled to leave their own homeland.
Civilian Bloodbath by Taliban
The bloodthirsty butchers of innocent Afghans continued terror on Saturday June 30, 2012, killing 16 civilians and 8 policemen across the country. Massacre of civilians by Taliban have increased in recent months. With the bloodshed and atrocities, Taliban want to give a message to the people of Afghanistan that the forces of darkness want to impose their ideology of terrorism.
Saturday was the last bloodiest day of last month. Taliban have started increasingly targeting civilian places to spread fear among ordinary people. They have no respect for the lives of civilians. The bloodbath of Saturday shows Taliban is a terror group that wants to impose itself on people by gun, and it must be defeated militarily. The Government has been wasting its time with the policy of accommodating terrorists.
Four civilians including two children were killed on Saturday in Helmand when their bike hit a roadside bomb. On their way from Washir to Nad Ali, they became victim of a mine planted by Taliban. All four were killed on spot. Another civilian, a student, was killed in Logar province when a villager motorbike rider was hit by a bomb blast in Yawrak area. In both incidents, the roads are frequently used by Afghan troops. Taliban plant roadside mines and explosive devices to target Afghan or International troops but mostly innocent civilians become the victim.
Four other children were killed in Panjwai district of Kandahar when a mortar shell went off. The children were playing on ground, unknowingly with the mortar shell, when it blasted, killing all four on spot.
Similarly, two policemen were killed and 10 civilians injured when a bomb planted with a motorcycle went off in front of a crowded market in Paktia province.
Elsewhere in Nuristan, 14 people including 6 policemen and 8 civilians were killed by insurgents on Saturday. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack.
The US and NATO condemned the suicide attack and torching of civilian houses by Taliban in Nuristan province. The US Embassy said this reprehensible attack further illustrates that the Taliban and other insurgents have no respect for the lives of innocent Afghan civilians.
They expressed condolence to the family members of victims saying the United States mourns the loss of life in Kamdesh, and remains steadfast partner of the Afghan people against the scourge of international terrorism.
We urge the international troops to do more for safety of Afghan civilians and target Taliban insurgents in their strongholds.
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