More than 200 blasts and 15 suicide attacks have rocked Afghanistan since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramzan on April 13, the Ministry of Interior Affairs of Afghanistan said on Tuesday. Over 255 civilians have perished, and 500 others have been injured in the attacks that the Ministry has attributed to the Taliban.
On Tuesday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani expressed his gratitude to the security forces for preventing over 800 incidents of attacks, and in the process arresting more than 800 terrorists, who he said will be tried as per the law for carrying out terror activities.
The message from the Afghan president came in the wake of the ceasefire announcement made by the Taliban on Sunday night. The Taliban announced that they would observe a three-day ceasefire for the festival of Eid. On Monday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani directed all the security forces to observe the ceasefire during Eid.
Khan Agha Rezaee, head of the internal security committee of the parliament, said that there was a dire need for a ceasefire as this year, there has been a large number of civilian deaths in the terror attacks. “Civilian casualties were high during Ramadan and there was a need for a ceasefire. We hope the ceasefire continues so that we can move towards the talks,” he said.
According to TOLOnews, the number of civilian casualties has increased by a staggering 20 per cent during the last one month, that is, the period from April 13 to May 12, as compared to a month before.
Even on the first day of Ramadan, Afghan forces tangled with the Taliban, resulting in the death of 8 civilians and leaving 21 other injured.
A significant number of civilian deaths have been caused by car bombs, which include a car bomb attack in Logar, another one in Farsi district in Herat, a roadside bomb blast in Zabul and three other explosions near Sayed-ul-Shuhada school in Kabul.
Recently, a powerful explosion outside a school in Kabul killed 85 Afghan girls and injured scores more, many of them teenage girls leaving class. Security agencies pointed fingers at the Taliban for the attack but the Islamic extremist group has denied the responsibility. However, the analysts believe that the attack may have been carried out by one of the splinter groups or offshoots of the Taliban.
With the impending American troop withdrawal, the intensity and scale of attacks in Afghanistan have seen a sharp uptick, underscoring the precarious state of the country’s internal security that is at risk of being overrun by the Taliban once the US forces leave the country.
