Saturday, September 17, 2016
Kabul (BNA) The war-weary Afghans celebrated Eid al-Adha, one of the largest annual religious festivals, across the insurgency-riddled country amid tight security on Monday.
Security forces had been deployed in all sensitive areas including big mosques where faithful Afghans used to offer Eid al-Adha prayer. To celebrate EidulAdha in a peaceful environment, the Afghan government had put in place all security measures elsewhere in the country. However, anti-government militants in attempts to disrupt festivities targeted a hospital in Taliban’s former stronghold of the southern Kandahar province on Monday, but the security forces after two hours of fighting brought the situation under control. Earlier in the day, a terrorist strapped with explosive devices who was attempting to target the governor of the northern Saripul province, had been gunned down by security personnel before reaching the governor.
President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, in his message to congratulate Eid al-Adha to Afghans and Muslims, said the prime need of Afghans is embracing lasting peace and Afghans are hopeful to see the end of war and restoring peace and stability in their country.
Local officials and religious scholars also stressed the need for more efforts to be done for peace.
“The message of Eid is a message of peace, I call on all people of my country to join hands and lets speed up the pace for peace,” said Mohammad AyazNiazi, a religious scholar in Kabul.
Herat governor Mohammad Asif Rahimi also called on the armed militants to denounce violence and to not harm their country on the order of strangers. “I want to call on the opponents who still have the weapons of enemies of Islam and Afghanistan on their shoulders to lay down their arms if they claim to be a true Afghan,” said Rahimi.
“Government officials should no longer trust the opponents, people are very tired and they need security,” a resident of Herat said.
He added, the main Eid prayers were held in Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of northern Balkh province. High-ranking government officials and Balkh governor Atta Mohammad Noor attended.
Addressing the gathering, Noor said there was an urgent need for better leadership in the Afghan security forces, saying that terrorists had failed to defeat Afghan security forces face-to-face on the battlefield.
He said that a number of security officials were allegedly involved in corruption, and called for reforms to be put in place in the security organizations in order to overcome such issues.
“They appear in television interviews, but in the winter they rest in warm rooms while in summer under the air conditioners, but they leave the sons of the poor in the wars alone,” said Noor.
Referring to the twin suicide bombings in Balkh province this year, Noor vowed to expose the names of those who coordinated the attack.
“We are closely monitoring those who from the address of the police get respect and then transfer suicide bombers and explosives in vehicles with tinted windows. One day we will act against them. We have reports about them and know them but the issue is that we have no evidence against them,” said Noor.
Meanwhile Balkh residents hailed the Afghan security forces for providing satisfactory security to the Eid celebrations.
“The Eid prayers ended peacefully, we hope that God helps us to reach sustainable peace,” said a resident of Balkh, Khalid.
In addition, MaidanWardak officials called on Afghans to unite and foil the plots of the enemiesAlso in Nangarhar, people from all walks of life participated at Eid services where they called on the warring factions to stop the ongoing battles and attacks and work for the development of the country. Afghan observers believe that celebrating the Eid al-Adha festival in a peaceful environment on Monday amid Taliban-led militancy in the country, virtually demonstrates the security forces’ ability in preventing insurgent groups from launching major attacks.
