Afghanistan Times
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KABUL: Friday coincides with Afghanistan’s Armed Forces Day, a day to gratify the country’s brave soldiers who fight in the frontlines of the war against insurgency inexorably. But disabled soldiers are let down by a government’s neglect to their situation.
A handful of soldiers who lost a limb in the war are wary of their living situation in the hands of the government. They are encumbered with myriad of challenges. Seyed Iqbal who was injured in a special operation in the east could never wield a carbine again.
“I worked in the army for 17 years and was combatant operative in special operations. I lost an eye, with six bullets in my left leg and three in my right leg. I walk with aid of a wand, stranded at home for over a year,” he said. He said he used to receive salary before his retirement, but hasn’t been paid ever since he was retired. Some reports suggest that families of deceased or disabled soldiers are faced with prickly situations in their lives.
This is as Afghanistan’s National Security Advisor Hamdullah Mohib has vowed – on the occasion of Afghanistan’s armed forces day – to avoid shortcoming in assistance to disabled soldiers and families of martyrs.
Although security authorities have not divulged information about death toll among armed forces, President Ashraf Ghani last year had alluded to a shocking revelation. He said more than 45,000 security personnel had been killed in the war since 2014. Based on Defense Ministry and Interior Ministry information, Afghanistan has 200,000 soldiers in the army and 124,000 police.
