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Civilian carnage in Qargha

Once again militants have succeeded to break in. And once again the violent act of militants wherein 17 civilians were killed speaks volumes of security lapse. It is worth pondering and questioning that how a group of five suicide bombers equipped with latest weapons managed to storm a hotel overnight in the heavily guarded and fortified area of the Qargha Bund (Lake). If the incident had taken place in a far-flung hamlet, village or province, it wouldn’t have caused such widespread fear but the militants wanted to send a strong message of their opposition to what’s happening on the political landscape of the country. However, the government shouldn’t succumb to such attacks but instead it should ramp up security in the capital; especially, those places where public goes for seeking respite of daily work boredom. The loss of 17 civilians is a huge blow and it is an irreparable loss. Qargha Bund is famous for boating, which is a tourist resort, where people flock in summer for recreation. The militants had sought a soft target; at least they shouldn’t have done so because Qarghaee is place where people usually go along with their families and children. By attacking such a soft target, militants have further dented their already defaced name and image among Afghans. Before this they had attacked Inter Continental Hotel last year, whereas in the latest coordinated attack they targeted Spogmai Hotel at around 11:00 am on Thursday night where 17 civilians were killed. Militants before this incident have not held civilians hostages and as human shield but this time they did it. Their change of tactic shows that now they are also angry at general public for supporting the government and not agitating against the Afghan-US strategic agreement but the militants should know that they cannot win over people’s support by force and if they want to, then they will have to use the force of ballot instead of bullet. And they should also know that the power of ballot is more than the power of bullet, for bullet kills and ballot gives power to serve and rule. Moreover, the attackers have once again used Burqa, a widely respected thing among Afghans and Muslims around the world. When that’s misused by militants, extremists prefer to stay mute and whenever there is burqa ban on Muslim women in France or somewhere else there is a never ending series of hue and cry. It is despite the fact that non-Muslims had nothing to do with the sanctity of burqa but what is more lamenting is that when it is badly used by Muslims themselves. We cry against foreign troops for ransacking Afghan houses because we consider it against our religious, cultural and social norms but when we commit mockery of burqa ourselves then why are we silent. Whoever is the militant, he is appealed to at least keep care of burqa sanctity. Here is another aspect of the incident which needs to be discussed, is that there were more or less 300 guests in Qargha. Some of the guests jumped into the lake and reached the other side by swimming however most of them were rescued by security forces. This time too Afghan security forces have shown that they are well capable in defending their homeland; however it were the militants who had opted to attack civilian places. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack, claiming that they had information about some foreign and Afghan officials were there. Their spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has claimed that several foreigners and Afghan officials were killed in the attack but civilian witnesses’ accounts reveal quite opposite details. His account seems to be baseless as Qargha is a tourist and picnic resort and not a military compound and a rendezvous of military meetings. And if there was any such an official meeting of military officers, then they should be called by the President of Afghanistan for explanation that why they opted for Qargha to have their meeting there as such an attack was not out of possibility.

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