More than 40 people were wounded and the nearby hospitals were overwhelmed by the huge number of dead and injured people Silva, 2014). The factors contributing to the attack have been discussed in this paper. The attack occurred in a time when the country was going through a disputed presidential election and the military were fighting the Taliban in Pakistanis North Waistband region. The recommendations to prevent the attack in the rural town are also given and are centered on the U. S. NATO, and the Afghan government increasing their presence in the rural areas so as to push away the resurgent group Taliban and working together with the people to restore peace (Crawford, 2011).
Description of the incident On 15th July 2014, a suicide bomber blew up a car filled with explosives as it drove through a crowded market and a mosque in a remote town in Afghanistan’s province of Pakistani, killing at least 89 people. Officials said this was the most gruesome insurgent attack on civilians since the us-led invasion in 2001. It surpassed the death toll from twin bombings on DCE. , 201 1 that targeted Shiite Muslims and killed 80 people in Mazda-I-Shari and Kabul (Facie, 2014). The deadly attack took place in the eastern district Of urge, next to the porous border with Pakistanis North Waistband region, where tedious of the Pakistani Taliban have been attacked by the military in the past few weeks, instigating militants to retreat towards Afghanistan, the AP reported. Video footage from the Associated Press showed the aftermath of the huge explosion. The blast destroyed several mud-brick shops, tossed cars over and stripped trees of their branches.
Madam Shah, a gas station employee, dashed to the site to help after he saw smoke and realized the town was on fire. He states that he loaded dozens of people who were injured or killed into vehicles (Silva, 2014). The neighboring hospitals were overwhelmed and lots of victims were transported over hazardous roads to the capital, Kabul. Abdul Khan, a member of the town, rushed to the hospital in Kabul to donate blood. He said, “Most of the people in the town lost three to four family members. ” His cousins had also been killed in the attack (Facie, 2014).
Mohammad Raze Chariot, administrative chief of Urge district said,” Many victims were buried in the rubble. It was a brutal suicide attack against poor civilians. There was no military base nearby/’. General Mohammed Chair Zamia, the Defense Ministry spokesman, said the explosives were detonated y the bomber as he drove through the busy market, wounding more than 40 people, destroying more than 20 shops and several vehicles. The U. N. Mission in Afghanistan said preliminary reports suggest that the bomber prematurely denoted the explosives after the police suspected the vehicle to be dangerous.
Eyewitnesses report that the bomber was in a four-wheel-drive vehicle and he hit two vehicles parked on the side of the road. This led the police to open fire and immediately the explosion happened (Facie, 2014). The Taliban denied any involvement in the attack saying that they strongly condemn attacks on local people. The truth behind this attack will become clear after an investigation, but we clearly announce that it was not done by the Munched of the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan,” the Taliban spokesman, Cubically Mislaid said in a statement reported by AP. The Munched do not conduct such attacks and such attacks do not bring any benefit to them. ” (Silva, 2014). Factors that led to the incident The tragic bombing was the first major attack since a deal was made between the two Afghan presidential candidates on the weekend. The deal was brokered by the US Secretary of State John Kerry with an objective to prevent dangerous rift in the distressed democracy of the country following the disputed presidential runoff that happened last month.
The two candidates, former Finance Minister Ashram Ghana Mohammad and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, had a meeting to talk about an audit of last month’s disputed presidential runoff vote. Abdullah spokesman Faze Sanitarian said that the two presidential contenders plan to meet again on Thursday (Facie, 2014). According to unofficial results, Ashram Ghana Mohammad was shown to be in the lead but the results were disputed by Abdullah porters claiming that the opponent was in the lead because Of widespread fraud.
This led to both sides being accused of fraud and the agreed-upon deal required that each of the eight million ballots to be audited under the supervision on national and international observers over the next three to four weeks. It is important to note, that hours before the car bombing in Pakistani, there was a roadside explosion in eastern Kabul that tore through a minivan carrying seven media office employees of the presidential palace. The bomb killed two of the passengers. The chief of criminal investigations tit the Kabul police, Gull Gaga Hashish said,” The explosion struck as the vehicle was taking the palace staffers to work.
Five other people, including the driver, were wounded” (Crawford, 201 1). In another incident, the district counter-terrorism director and six other police officers were killed together with six border guards by the Taliban insurgents at a post in the eastern province of Ghost on the border with Pakistan, said Embarks Mohammad Quadrant, provincial governor spokesman. The disputed presidential elections has had an immediate impact on the security situation of the country. There ad been widespread bombings on civilians and the police after the elections and this underscored the country instability.
The car bomb attack in the busy market on Pakistani may have been influenced by the current political instability. A key factor that contributed to the car bombing is the US invasion into Afghanistan. The direct political intervention into the Afghan government led to the rise of many Islamic insurgent groups in the country. We all know that in wars, many civilians perish due to indirect causes as they suffer collateral damage. Since 2005, the Taliban have been arming themselves literary and have claimed responsibility to several bombings that killed many civilians (Edges, 2014).
This led the US troops and Afghan militants to attack Taliban hideouts in western Pakistan. The war between the Taliban and the US-Died military has caused many terrorist attacks on rural towns in Afghanistan. The bomb attack in Pakistani was as a result of the US war in Afghanistan and the escalation of insurgent groups such as the Taliban. The attack comes after the US plans to withdraw troops from Afghanistan at the end of the year and the politicians in Kabul as struggling for power.
This explains the numerous bombings in various towns and greatly underscores the security instability and fight for dominance between the us-influenced government and the Taliban. Recommendations on how the incident could have been prevented There is a huge socio-political and economic comparison between major cities, including the capital and the rural towns. In the major cities, there are several foreign cars, computer shops and ATM machines. Both male and female children attend school and the country seems to have changed in a positive way. However, in the rural towns of southern and eastern Afghanistan, the situation is vastly different.
The fields of wheat and other food crops have been converted into poppy plantations. Poppy is the source of heroin trade in the globe and its growth has escalated since the war broke out. It is said that poppy contributes significantly to the revenue of the resurgent Taliban and also corruption among the warlords and officials in the Afghan government. “The increase in cultivation and production of poppy is astounding” said Seth Jones, an investigative reporter (Edges, 2014). Rural Afghanistan is home to 75 percent of the population and it is where the Taliban and AY Qaeda propagate their information amassing.
They spread threatening leaflets, store their weapons and publicly hang tribal leaders who are in liaison with the government. Due to the power these terrorist groups have in the rural towns, the locals have allowed them to operate freely because they are afraid to resist and the government are not doing their best to protect them. ‘ ‘The population in the rural areas end up giving up, and that is most of the country,” said Jones (Edges, 2014). My recommendations are that the U. S. , NATO, and the Afghan government should fight to win the hearts and minds of the rural people.
They should cake a huge effort to reduce the gap in economic, social and political disparity between the major cities and the rural towns. The majority of the population are residents in rural areas so they should be their main concern. The lack of enough food in the rural towns should be discussed and reforms be made to provide food security. The flourishing poppy farming has lowered food production and attracted insurgent groups to rural towns and proliferated corruption. It is therefore of utmost importance that food production in the rural market be revamped to increase food security and improve economic stability.
The poppy plantations should be controlled and managed by responsible state institutions with the best interest of the civilians at heart. The insurgent groups should not be controlling the poppy farms and military intervention is essential to stop them from making revenue from it. This will also push the Taliban away from rural towns since they will not have the monetary resources to spread their campaign. The rural towns have been left out in terms of counterinsurgency. The major cities are not prone to several bombings because they enjoy protection from the Afghan government. LLC. S.
NATO, and the Afghan government should increase their presence in the rural areas and prevent the Taliban from spreading their message and storing weapons so close to innocent civilians. The people will gain confidence in them and provide more secret information on the whereabouts and agenda of the terrorists. This recommendations will prevent car bombings from such as the one in Pakistani and save the lives of many Afghan citizens from the gruesome effects of the war in Afghanistan. Conclusion The US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 has seen numerous car bombings in towns especially in the southern and eastern regions.
Thousands of civilians have been killed or wounded over the years and this attack in a crowded market place in Pakistani is one of the deadliest. The main factor that led to the attack was the fact that it was a rural town where insurgent groups have gained power and have the freedom to do as they wish. The rural town does not have the support of the Afghan government and so they are afraid and have accepted the anti-government groups to exist because they do not have anybody to protect them. This attack occurred during the presidential election period so the attack might be as a result of the struggle for power.
