Today (Sunday) was declared as a national day of mourning following a Taliban attack on the Afghan National Army’s 209 Shaheen Military Corps in Mazar-i-Sharif on Friday.
The troops were busy offering Friday’s prayer and some were dining when 10 heavy armed gunmen and suicide bombers entered the base in two military vehicles before opening fire.
As many as 135 soldiers were killed and 60 others wounded in the attack that drew condemnation from many countries.
The Taliban said their 10 fighters were involved in the attack. President Ashraf Ghani Saturday declared Sunday a day of national mourning.
Sher Mohammad Akhunzada, a Meshrano Jirga member from southern Helmand province, told today’s session that those who carried out the attack were not Muslims.
He held government leaders and the defense minister responsible for the attack and said: “We lack the ability to question you, but you will be accountable for the loss of 130 soldiers on the judgment day.”
Mohammad Hassan Hotak, another senator, called the attack as barbaric and said: “Attack on prayers is against the Quran and Islamic values.”
Zalmai Zabulai, a senator from Zabul province, criticized th appointment of a fact finding commission and said: “Mourning and commissions will not resolve people’s problems, a national consensus must be created and the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) with the US reviewed.”
He asked the international community to put pressure on Pakistan to stop financing and equipping terrorist groups.
Another senator, Gul Ahmad Azami, also said it was an unforgivable incident.
“The main planners of this attack were regional intelligence and figures inside the government. Organizing such attack without inside support is impossible,” he said.
He said poor management, intelligence and detection were other factors that allowed the attack to happen. “Losing 137 soldiers is shocking, if officials who committed negligence in the past had been punished, this incident would not have happened,” he said.
Senator Lailuma Ahmadi said fact finding commissions in the past had not shared their information with the people, the national day of mourning would also not help.
A number of other members also called the attack against Islam and said the national day of mourning and tasking commissions were useless.
First deputy chairman, Mohammad Alam Ezedyar, who chaired the session, said, the attack on the 209th Shaheen Military Corps was intolerable and unjustifiable.
He hoped the incident would not be forgotten like other incidents happened in the past.
He said poor leadership, interference in recruitment, enemies’ infiltration and differences among government leaders were factors behind such incidents.
Concealing information by past fact-finding commissions had made the nation not to trust the government anymore, he said, adding hiding facts from people would cause unwanted consequences.
Ezedyar asked the government to find the root causes of the current crisis and wars in the country and take action for tightening security.
mds/ma
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