Afghan Warrior

The recent reports of desecration of the two Taliban militants by the US personnel and insultng the Ganbuz Villagers for sheltering Taliban spread around Afghanistan and caused the anger of some people. Even though some of these fighters are foreigners, it is still not a right action and it is against the Geneva Convention and we hope the US central command must initiate an immediate investigation and legal action (see their response here and here) and punish the offenders. In my opinion, at any place and any combat both sides involved in combat should behave with the captives, prisoners and dead bodies in accordance with the Geneva Convention. It is the first time I have heard about burning the bodies of the enemies. I never heard of it before. Also I have not heard such a thing from the ANA because in some missions the ANA soldiers are operating together with the US Army. I think the bodies of enemies should be taken to the hospital and kept there until their family members receive them. As there are some foreign fighters in Afghanistan, their bodies should be returned to their country and if they are unknown then the local authorities are responsible for their burial. The people of Afghanistan know that the Taliban and Al Qaeda are their enemies so they are not harbouring the enemies of their country. The Taliban and Al Qaeda kill innocent people like religious scholars and aid workers and there have been demonstrations against the Taliban. In yesterday's demonstration in the troubled Khost province, thousands of people including tribal leaders and school students demonstrated against the Taliban and Al Qaeda and they were chanting slogans against the Taliban such as "Death to Taliban" so I dont think any village is sheltering the Taliban.

We hope that the locals and villagers should not be insulted and taunted without any proof. I think the desecration of the enemies bodies were carried out by some American slodiers. It hasn't come from the US Central Command so we hope there will be legal action against those who carried out such an action and we hope in future operations our Islamic traditions and culture should be observed.

Our people are very happy for what they have gained over the past 4 years with the help of the United States and other friendly countries and they are hoping for a bright future of peace, democracy and stability and good relations with all countries of the world.

Afghan people did not show as much interest in the paliamentary election as what was expected. During last year's presidential election, 75% of registered people cast their votes. But during last month's parliamentary election only 50% of registered people voted, which shows the people are less interested in the parliament. The foreign media and analysts might cite security concerns for the peoples's lack of interest, but the main reason is the disappointment of the people from their government. They showed great interest in last year's presidential election, but after the passage of one year their government was not able to do anything significant to change the life of the people.

Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, is still suffering from power and water shortages, and the power supply to other provinces will take years. Wages are low, the food prices and housing rent is very expensive. Most people who did not cast their vote or those who did not register, complain about the government and they say we voted during the presidential election and selected our president but our lives have not improved and parliament will not do any thing either. So all these were the complaints of the people who did not cast their vote and who did not register. I do not blame the government, however the government has not done anything significant to improve the lives of the people because we have a weak economy and half of our budget comes from foreign assisstance. so everything takes time and our people should be patient and they should keep faith.

Different people like former Mujahideen commanders, a few former communists and many new faces nominated themselves for the parliament and people were expecting that the new faces will win seats. But far from what they were expecting, again most old faces won the seats and some of these candidates were involved in civil war. There are many reasons behind their winning, but the main reason is that many of them won for being their tribal leader. Even though they didnt have many supporters, all their supporters turned out to cast their votes. Also, these candidates spent thousands of dollars during their campaigns. The disappointment of some people that caused them to not cast their votes, lead to the victory of these old faces. Another reason is that almost six thousand people nominated themselves for the parliament so the votes were spread out and diluted.

People are concerned about the presence of the former commanders and jihadi leaders in parliament because people do not have a good impression from them. I think it it is our own people's mistake for not participating like they were supposed to do. It will be a lesson to our people and I hope in the next election they should show great interest and all people should register and participate well and elect their favorite person. It is our own people who make the difference. In my opinion the parliament members should have solid education in order to make good decisions to serve their people honestly. However some of these candidates do not have high level of education but we hope they should honestly work for their country and people.

Violence and suicide attacks have been continuing in southern Afghanistan. The rebels intensified their attacks after the landmark parliamentary election in different parts of the country, particularly in the southern and southeastern provinces and have killed dozens of government forces and also a few coalition forces. Taliban already vowed that they will start a new wave of their insurgency after the parliamentary election and right after the parliamentary election they raised their attacks, especially suicide attacks. Over the past 2 weeks, 5 suicide attacks were conducted by the enemies and also the rebels have accelerated their military operations in different provinces of Afghanistan. As a result, there was a suicide attack in front of Kabul military training center that killed 9 ANA soldiers and 4 more suicide attacks took place in Kandahar province which killed and injured a number of people including 4 British nationals. Also the rebels killed five health workers by an ambush in Kandahar province. The Afghan National police faced a the highest casualty during this week - at least 20 police forces were killed and a number injured when the rebels targeted their convoy from an ambush in the southern Helmand province. It was the highest level of casualties to Afghan National Police since the ousting of the Taliban regime. In a similar attack, 6 other police were killed in Uruzgan province.

Recent violence shows that the enemies are still active and recent violence is increasing people's concern over the rebels militancy, because the enemies attacks reached Kabul, and a couple of days before the arrival of Condoleeza Rice, Kabul was hit by two rockets. One of those rockets hit Canadian ambassador residence which injured two Afghan guards and the second hit the intelligence headquarters which resulted no casualties.

The NATO Secretary General, during his visit to Afghanistan, said that NATO was ready to increase their forces and deploy them to the southern provinces. We hope that more NATO forces will be deployed in the southern parts of Afghanistan as soon as possible. There is a big requirement for these forces and it will help to prevent the insurgents from attacking because there will be more patrols and military operations and it will be hard for the rebels to continue their activities in the southern provinces.

Four personnel of the Afghan National Police were killed and another wounded when the US-led coalition opened fire at their vehicle in the southren Helmand province on Thursday. An official from the Interior Ministry called the incident a misunderstanding and said five personnel of the Afghan National Police were carrying one of their wounded personnel and they were dressed in civilian clothes when they were targeted by the US-led coalition forces, suspecting them as insurgents. A US military spokeman confirmed the incident and said the police officers were not in uniform and they tried to drive away quickly from the area. He said "we are conducting an investigation and we regret this incident".

It is not the first time that the Afghan government forces have been targeted by friendly fire. A few similar accidents have happened in the past. However, President Karzai and American officials expressed their sorrow over this incident but still it will not be enough to prevent such an incident in the future, because there is no coordination in military operations. If there is any military operation the coalition and Afghan government forces must inform each other and they should have communication between each other and communication is the best way to prevent such an incidents. So in my opinion, the coalition forces should carry out their operations with the participation of the Afghan National Army and police and if there were Afghan National Army soldiers with US-led coalition, this incident wouldn't have happened. We hope all military operations should be under one command.

The enemies of peace try to get advantage from such an incident but they should know that the Afghan Army and their cooperators are totally united and will remain united till they defeat all the terrorists.

Abdul Latif Hakimi, the spokesman of the Taliban insurgents, was arrested in Pakistan on Tuesday. Hakimi was the main spokesman of the Taliban insurgents and he was in touch with a few different news agencies and he was reporting by satellite phone from undisclosed locations and he often made untrue claims on behalf of the Taliban insurgents. Many people believed that Hakimi was in Pakistan and he was continuing his activities from there like many other Taliban. The former US Ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, during his last interview with Tolo TV, an Afghan TV channel, blamed Pakistan for not honestly acting against the terrorists. During his interview he said the Taliban spokesman was reporting from Pakistan against the Afghan government and coalition forces but the Pakistani officials were unable to find him and other Taliban leaders. But the Pakistani officials denied the claim of US ambassador at that time.

The arrest of Hakimi is really important in the current situation and it will also lead to more arrests and we hope he will be handed over to Afghan custody for more interrogation and he should also be questioned for last week's suicide attack that was carried out against the Afghan National Army that killed a number of the ANA soldiers. We welcome the efforts of the Pakistan government for arresting the Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi and we hope that the Pakistani Intelligence keep seeking other hidden rebels and their leaders. Such an arrest will weaken the enemies. We hope the Pakistan government will try to find the main source and location of the rebels and find out how they get supplied from Pakistan and where they escape after crossing the border and conducting guerilla attacks inside Afghan territory. The permanent peace and stability in Afghanistan is for the benefit of Pakistan and other neighboring countries in the region.