Violence has escalated in Afghanistan amid the crucial round of peace talks currently ongoing between American and Taliban negotiators in Qatar. The Taliban are trying to unleash a new spate of violent attacks across the country as a sign of strength in order to secure more concessions in the peace parleys. Similarly, Afghan government largely sidelined from the ongoing talks has stepped up operations against the insurgents. But the problem of the escalation of fighting is that it jeopardizes the lives of ordinary Afghan population besides inflicting casualties on the warring sides. As part of the new wave of violence, Kabul city was hit by a massive explosion followed by a complex attack against a government compound by suicide bombers, after a period of relative lull. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack targeting the Engineering and Logistics Department of the Ministry of Defense. A suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vehicle, and then a group of heavily armed gunmen held up in a nearby building opened fire on the Afghan National Army’s logistics and engineering compound. The powerful blast, which was heard throughout the city and shattered windows several kilometers away, left behind tens of people killed or wounded.
While the seventh round of talks between Taliban representatives and American diplomats led by Zalmay Khalilzad is ongoing, the terrorist attack in Kabul showed that the Taliban are seeking concessions at the negotiating table by spilling Afghan blood. It also denotes that the militants, in pursuit of their goals, show no mercy towards the very people they claim to be protecting. For the Taliban, their interests are more important than the blood of their innocent countrymen. Despite the fact that the Taliban are trying to show that they have changed and are not after monopolizing power, the ruthless killing of Afghan people and spreading panic and terror among them have only one meaning: the group is ready to do anything, including the massacre of innocent people, to seize power.
Afghan people do not buy into the Taliban’s empty claims. Now that discussions on the political settlement of the Afghan conflict have ever been heated, the Taliban need to translate their words of not harming civilian lives and property into actions. No matter if the Taliban integrate into the country’s mainstream politics through a peace deal, or seize power through the use of force, they will have to live alongside and work with the same people in both scenarios. Taliban leaders ought to not forget this point, and avoid instigating further public ire against them.
