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KANDAHAR, Aug 21: A recent rise in violence in Afghanistan is the work of international guerilla groups linked to the Al Qaeda network, a senior Afghan official said on Thursday.
Yusuf Pashtun, new governor of the southern province of Kandahar where Taliban fighters are active, also urged Pakistan to do more to stop what he said militants crossing into Afghan territory and waging guerilla war.
He was speaking as Foreign Minister Mian Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri said on a visit to Kabul that his government would do all it could to support President Hamid Karzai.
“This situation is causing a lot of concern,” Mr Pashtun said, referring to one of the bloodiest periods in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
“But this is not unexpected. With all the hiking up of terrorist activities on an international level...the flaring up of such activities in and around Afghanistan will not be a surprise,” he said in Kandahar.
Since early last week, suspected Taliban militants have launched attacks in the east and southeast of the country. A bomb on a passenger bus killed 15 in Helmand province and 25 people died in factional fighting in Uruzgan.
Mr Pashtun did not directly link the series of raids on government forces, civilians and aid workers in Afghanistan with events in Iraq and Indonesia, but said the violence was the work of Al Qaeda or groups linked to the network.
“Regional operations are all related with each other. I don’t believe that the Taliban are being supplied and trained by the people of Pakistan,” he said. Some Afghan officials have accused Islamabad of actively supporting the Taliban.
“They are definitely having direct links with the main Al Qaeda lines,” he said.
“At this moment I could blame 50 per cent of the problem at least on Pakistan and another 50 per cent on our own selves.”
RECONSTRUCTION DISRUPTED: Mr Pashtun, a fluent English speaker sent to Kandahar to help tighten President Karzai’s loose grip on power outside Kabul, warned that by disrupting reconstruction efforts, the Taliban could extend its influence over poorer regions.
“This is the main policy of the terrorists. Once you disrupt that (reconstruction) you deprive a certain area totally of reconstruction efforts,” Pashtun said.
“When they hear that the United Nations is suspending their programme they simply don’t understand it. They say ‘OK, we are neglected’ and that feeling of neglect makes them more vulnerable to the intervention of the terrorists.”
The international aid community has suspended many operations in Afghanistan, particularly in southern and central regions, but also elsewhere, for fear of more attacks.
Mr Pashtun said he hoped to break the “vicious cycle” by gradually starting up reconstruction and aid projects and improving security on a long-term basis.
HUNT FOR MILITANTS: Hundreds of Afghan soldiers were on Thursday carrying out an operation in central Afghanistan against suspected Taliban militants who killed a security commander and his bodyguard, the local governor said.
A group of around 200 suspected Taliban attacked and captured two villages in Khas district of Uruzgan province at the weekend, killing the two men, governor Jon Mohammad said.
“Three days ago around 700 government soldiers in cooperation with coalition forces launched a clean-up operation, recaptured the two villages and arrested six Taliban,” he said.
“The rest of the Taliban fled to neighbouring Zabul province.”
US troops and vehicles had helped in the operation, he said.
“We are still continuing our operation in Khas district but the district has been cleaned of all Taliban now,” he said.
It was not possible to independently verify details of the operation in the remote and rugged province where Taliban leader Mullah Omar was born.
At least 20 people were killed and 25 others wounded in fighting between rival militias in Uruzgan last Wednesday.
Factional fighting and intensified attacks on aid workers, soldiers and officials have claimed about 100 lives in the past week and led to a suspension of crucial relief operations in some areas.
The United Nations has suspended road missions in Uruzgan and Zabul.
At the weekend, hundreds of militants on trucks stormed two Afghan border districts, killing at least 25 people. —AFP
