As Nato troops leave Afghanistan, violence mounts in Paktia

Shootings in broad daylight becoming commonplace, but locals say not only Taliban is to blame.

Nato troops walk past supply trucks set ablaze in attack by three suicide bombers in the Torkham area near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Nangarhar province. Parwiz / Reuters / June 19, 2014

GARDEZ, Afghanistan // A government soldier was fatally shot earlier this month as he sat in a pickup truck in Gardez, the capital of Afghanistan’s south-east Paktia province.

He did not die in battle or in an ambush launched under the cover of darkness.

Instead, he was gunned down at lunchtime as he waited to collect meat from an army supplier.

His attackers arrived in a Toyota Corolla and left with the soldier’s pickup after dumping his body, before anyone could stop them.

The shooting of a man in broad daylight is the sort of tragedy that is now part of ordinary life in Paktia, where violence and intimidation come from several different sources. There are signs the security situation is worsening as most Nato troops prepare to leave the country at the end of the year.

Two residents who described the attack on the soldier separately to The National both claimed the Taliban were responsible.

One, a tribal elder, said a group of insurgents were later killed by a drone strike as they tried to smuggle the pickup across the border into Pakistan.

The other, a 24-year-old named Hameed Totakhil, described the problems that are now developing in the province.

“The Taliban are here to cause insecurity,” he said. “They are coming from the villages to central areas and then to the main highways.”

Although the Taliban are blamed for much of the trouble in Paktia, they are not alone in contributing to the growing unease in some quarters. Residents also accuse criminals and even elements of the government’s security forces of fuelling the bloodshed.

Mountainous, stiflingly hot and with a majority ethnic Pashtun population, Paktia borders Pakistan’s volatile tribal region of North Waziristan and is an important hub for Afghanistan’s trade and commerce.

The province has never been regarded as a Taliban stronghold and it fell from the Islamist regime’s grasp with ease in November 2001 as tribal councils initially took control locally after the US-led invasion.

After some early unrest a long period of relative calm followed, despite the occasional high-profile incident such as the 2006 assassination of the governor, Hakim Taniwal, by a suicide bomber.

When the US president Barack Obama took office in 2008 he sent tens of thousands of extra troops to Afghanistan – a decision that led to an escalation in violence in Paktia and elsewhere. Now, however, only a small contingent of foreign soldiers remain in the province.

The long-term effect of the withdrawal is still unclear, but a number of residents told The National that conditions have started to deteriorate in recent months. Security also appears to be worsening in other areas of the country, with the Taliban and Afghan forces currently engaged in fierce fighting in the southern province of Helmand.

They warned that the insurgency and criminal activity were beginning to flourish, with the lines between the two often blurred.

“After 8pm no one can walk inside the city of Gardez, villages are at war and the highways are not safe. That is all very obvious,” said Abdul Basid Sabawoon, a shopkeeper.

“There is not an exact name for those responsible. Anyone can call themselves a Talib. Thieves, kidnappers and criminals are all called Talibs.”

According to the iCasualties.org website, 29 foreign soldiers have been killed in Paktia since the war began in 2001. Among them were three US special forces personnel shot dead in an insider attack in Gardez last September. In a similar incident earlier this month, a policeman shot and injured two American military advisers, also in Gardez.

Mohammed Nawab Mangal, an MP for Paktia who serves on the parliament’s internal security commission, said insurgents were openly active in about half of Paktia’s districts, with the majority of the militants affiliated to a branch of the Taliban known as the Haqqani Network.

He described one recent incident in which an off-duty soldier and policeman were ambushed while travelling together about three kilometres from Gardez city. The policeman was killed and the soldier abducted.

Mr Mangal dismissed the rebels’ chances of making major territorial gains but said they would win more support from residents unless officials addressed concerns regarding the behaviour of local security forces, including government-backed militias.

He accused Afghan soldiers and members of the intelligence service from elsewhere in the country of discriminating against the province’s Pashtun population.

“People are worried and have complaints about the police,” he said. “There are a number of police involved in corruption.”

Not all observers highlight the violence in Paktia as a serious concern.

A report published in May by the International Crisis Group said violence had dropped sharply in Paktia during 2012 and 2013, as the US reduced its presence. It said that, at least locally, the withdrawal may ultimately undermine the Taliban’s justifications for fighting.

Afghanistan usually experiences a rise in violence during the summer months, when the mountain passes are clear of snow and insurgents have more freedom of movement. While some of the recent bloodshed was therefore expected, the scale of the problem has taken residents by surprise.

Abdul Hadi Hamas, a doctor and local civil society activist, gave several examples of violence in Paktia, including the robbery and killing of a man near Gardez jail and the attempted assassination of a police trainer in the city’s main market. He said the Taliban were particularly active in and around the district of Zurmat.

“If the insecurity is not prevented it will make people unhappy and they will become involved in it,” he said. “Slowly it will spread to the villages and turn into a civil war.”