Those killing us should be killed, asserts Muslimyar

JALALABAD (Pajhwok): Meshrano Jirga chairman Fazl Hadi Muslimyar on Monday asked the government to negotiate peace with those who wanted peace not with those opposing it.

The upper house chairman was speaking at funeral ceremonies for some victims of yesterday’s suicide attack in Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province.

The suicide bomber entered a guesthouse belonging to Malak Osman, an influential Shinwari tribe elder, and Wolesi Jirga member Dr. Asmat Shinwari and blew himself up among participants of a gathering of tribal elders, killing 13 people and injuring 14 more.

The dead included Shinwari’s brother and three cousins and Malak Osman and one of his sons were among those wounded in the attack.

On Monday, funeral prayers for five slain members of the same family were offered at the Sherzai ground. Muslimyar, provincial officials and hundreds of tribal elders attended the funeral prayers.

Muslimyar told Pajhwok Afghan News: “We want peace with those who want peace and those killing us should be killed.”

He called the armed opposition, a reference to insurgent groups, as Afghanistan’s enemies who at the behest of outsiders were creating anarchy and fueling violence in the country.

“The enemies who call themselves champions of Islam are killing us. Look today we offered funeral prayers for Huffaz (memorizers of the Quran). It shows the enemies are enslaved and they kill our people and elders to please their masters,” the Senate chairman said.

Meanwhile, Nangarhar peace committee chief Malak Nazir told reporters that Malak Osman’s son Samiullah had been kidnapped by insurgents. Samiullah was released in exchange for the release of four captured militants.

But the insurgents sent a suicide bomber to attack a gathering of elders welcoming Samiullah’s release, Malak Nazir said, but did not name his kidnappers.

Both Taliban and Daesh militants have so far not commented on the attack. Malak Nasir said they condemned the suicide attack that came amid latest efforts to revive the peace talks. “Such attacks dishearten people and make them lose faith in the peace process.”

A spokesman for the Shinwari tribe council, Izzat Afghan, said the assassination spree of Shinwari elders was ongoing over the past one year. “The enemy wants to weaken our tribe, but they would never succeed.”

Another Shinwari tribe elder, Malak Arif Shinwari, told Pajhwok Afghan News: “The Shinwaris are victim of a plot. We are not neither safe in the Shinwari zone nor in Jalalabad, we are attacked and targeted everywhere.”

Malak Arif, also a close relative of Malak Osman’s family, asked the government to investigate the attack and expose the attackers.

Nangarhar governor Salim Khan Kunduzi, who attended the funeral prayers, said the government was defending the people, but the insurgents always targeted civilians.

“This is not the first incident in which innocent people are killed, it has been ongoing since long, but could not weaken the masses and the government.”

The governor expressed condolences to the bereaved families and said the treatment of those injured in the attack was going well.

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