No peace for Afghanistan

Mass murder creates little but fear and intimidation, & for murderers, sadly, this was another ‘mission accomplished’

The suicide bomber rode his motorbike into the crowd that was watching a volleyball tournament held between three local teams in Yahya Khail district of Paktika province in Afghanistan. He detonated his cargo in the midst of a throng of happy and predominantly young people. In an instant, at least 50 were dead, another 60 wounded and local medical services were quickly overwhelmed by the dead, dying and injured. Within an hour of the blast, helicopters were en route from Kabul to move the most seriously injured to hospitals elsewhere in the country. It was the deadliest bombing of civilians (there do not appear to have been any military casualties but police and provincial officials were among the dead and wounded) — since 2011. Thus far, there has been no ownership of the bombing by any of the warring factions in the country, and given the level of civilian casualties, there may be no group taking responsibility for it.

Condemnation was swift and came from all sides from Afghan President Ashraf Ghani downwards, and our own government spokesperson also condemned the attack. What the motive behind such barbarity may be is obscure, but it may be no mere coincidence that it took place on the same day that the Afghan lower house of parliament approved a set of agreements that will allow up to 12,500 Nato troops to stay in the country to support Afghan forces as they battle the Afghan Taliban. The new Nato mission is named “Resolute Support” — with the Afghan forces clearly in need of bolstering as they are struggling virtually everywhere while engaging with the Taliban to roll them back. The Afghans have been reliant on Nato air assets for strike and heavy-lift operations and soon these will no longer be on the table. The Taliban remain a cohesive fighting force perfectly tuned to asymmetric warfare. They are well funded and have competent officers to lead them in the field. Morale is reportedly high. Mass murder creates little but fear and intimidation, and for the murderers, sadly, this was another ‘mission accomplished’.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 25^th, 2014.

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