Another Day In Afghanistan
There are fears that the death toll will rise further
At least 89 people have
been killed and dozens injured in a suicide attack at a busy market in
eastern Afghanistan's Paktika province, when a jihadi on a suicide mission drove a 4X4 into the Orgun district market, detonating the explosives he carried, to send himself to Paradise as a gift to himself and to the jihadi community for Ramadan.
Other pious Muslims celebrated Ramadan rather differently; a yearly event where Muslims are exhorted to behave even more generously toward others, to please Allah, going about their business in the market, shopping for the festival. Now, there will be almost one hundred fewer Afghans celebrating Ramadan in the wake of that deadly attack.
Other pious Muslims celebrated Ramadan rather differently; a yearly event where Muslims are exhorted to behave even more generously toward others, to please Allah, going about their business in the market, shopping for the festival. Now, there will be almost one hundred fewer Afghans celebrating Ramadan in the wake of that deadly attack.
"We clearly announce that it was not done by the Mujahedeen of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan", piously protested Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban, lest they be accused of desecrating Ramadan. They are, of course, fully capable of such atrocities, and have been exceedingly active in reminding Afghans that they haven't gone anywhere, and plan to return in force with the departure of U.S. troops.
The presidential election disputes with both leading candidates, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani claiming victory, requiring the diplomatic intervention of the U.S. Secretary of State to lull the growing ferocity of the dispute threatening to produce the seeds for a tribal, civil war with two declared governments and two presidents, has been defused. Nothing, however, will defuse the ardour of the Islamists for delivering death and becoming martyrs.
Local hospitals were taxed to their maximum with the number of casualties resulting from one of the deadliest attacks -- in months -- in Afghanistan in the eastern province of Paktika, close by the border with Pakistan's volatile tribal areas. According to the district governor of Orgun District, Mohammad Raza Kharoti, most of those killed were shopkeepers, and ordinary people shopping for Ramadan.
"There is no room in the hospitals for the victims, people are treating the wounded people on the streets", said a man who had witnessed the huge blast that had destroyed dozens of shops and vehicles. A spokesman for the country's defence ministry described most of the 89 recovered bodies as those of women and children.
Police and security forces had pursued the attacker before he drove his vehicle into the market, according to eyewitnesses. "We have got children, men and women injured and dead" one doctor at Organ hospital said. And while the Taliban refused to claim credit for that attack, they did carry out an earlier roadside bomb attack targeting a vehicle with employees of the presidential palace, killing two of the media team of President Hamid Karzai.
"People were shocked, and we are shocked, but this is the sad reality of Afghanistan", stated former foreign minister and presidential hopeful, Abdullah Abdullah. Just another day in a country fraught with viciously uncivil Islamist rage.
Labels: Afghanistan, Atrocities, Taliban
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, July 16, 2014
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