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KABUL: Residents in the northeastern province of Badghis said that they have been struggling with making ends meet as violence has been intensifying and the militants overrun the highways and districts.
“Business has dropped in Badghis there is no job and craft as the Taliban have been firing mortals on (Qala-e-Naw, the provincial capital city),” said, shopkeeper Juma Gul. “The Taliban are getting close to the gates of the city but there is no one to keep them at bay. I can’t earn as much income to pay for the rent and to feed my family.”
The relentless war has also displaced some of the residents to other provinces.
52 years old, Akhtar Mohammad a resident of Moqor district of Badghis is currently in the western Herat province. Akhtar is one of the thousands who has been forced to leave his village and find a settlement somewhere else due to drastic violence ongoing in his village. “A bombardment occurred and we escaped from both; the government and Taliban,” he added.
He lives under a tent in Karukh district alongside his seven members of the family. “The government (forces) and Taliban (fighters) engaged in clashes, three of our relatives were killed and now I am here, don’t have food to eat and if our country becomes stable again, I will go back to my village,” he added.
The Afghan security forces have recently retreated from a military base in Bala-Murghab district. The security officials denied to provide information in regards but head of provincial council, Abdul Aziz Big said that the Taliban have control over the whole district, after the security forces retreated from the district.
“The Taliban have been trying to overrun the districts and highways,” he added. “We call on the government to pay further attention to the reinforcement and supplement of the security forces.”
Provincial Governor Hasamuddin Shams apparently worried about the surge in violence, saying that the security forces have inflicted heavy casualties on the militants.
“There are some security threats on the highways of some districts; the capital of Jond district has been under Taliban siege for a longtime,” he said. “But the roads to other districts such as Balamurghab, Moqor, Abkamari and Qadis are not threat for some government employees not for the civilians.”
The US and Taliban signed a peace deal last February to find a political end to the ongoing war in Afghanistan. Under the deal that laid out the withdrawal of US troop and intra-Afghan negotiations, the Taliban are called to reduce violence across the country. But according to some international human watchdogs, the militants have not made any reduction in violence.
