Bleak Afghan future

There seems to be no end to the pain and misery in Afghanistan. As the world battles the coronavirus pandemic, the attention has been shifted from war-torn nation and violence has returned.

A brazen and heart-wrenching incident occurred earlier this week as gunmen stormed a maternity hospital in Kabul, killing 24 people including two newborn babies, their mothers and nurses. There were eleven babies at the hospital’s incubators; many of them did not even have names yet, but they suffered a major loss as their mothers were killed in the attack.

The incident has the nation wondering if peace will return to the country. The images of two children found dead inside and a woman lying dead holding a baby in her arms was enough to share our conscience. The Afghan Taliban denied responsibility and ISIS has been blamed for the attack.

An attack on a hospital is an act against human and a war crime. Afghan Vice President summed it saying neither the Taliban hands nor their stained consciousness can be washed of the blood of women, babies, and others in the “senseless carnage”.

US special envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad put the blame on ISIS militants for the attack. He still believes that the only way to peace is dialogue and hold intra-Afghan talks. US Defence Secretary has blamed both Afghan Taliban and Karzai administration for the failure to even initiate talks.

ISIS has also claimed responsibility for several recent attacks and could be in direct confrontation with the Afghan Taliban. The Afghan government released arrested an ISIS leader in the region and this could be retribution as the terror group has also opposed the peace talks.

Another attack on the same day occurred in the volatile Nangarhar where a suicide bomber blew himself up at the funeral of a police commander. The officer had survived years of combat but it seems that even the dead cannot escape violence in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan faces an uncertain and bleak future, not just from the last two decades of war, but even from the coronavirus pandemic. The much-publicised Doha Agreement was supposed to end the war but it seems to be falling apart and little help is coming from the outside world.