‘Insecurity growing on Kabul-Gardez highway’

PUL-I-ALAM (Pajhwok): Insecurity has increased on the Kabul militants also check people’s vehicles on the route.

Zarif, a resident of Ali Khan Qala village of Pul-i-Alam, the provincial capital, told Pajhwok Afghan News that Taliban attacks on government’s vehicles had increased, making insecure the Kabul-Gardez highway.

This ongoing month alone, Zarif said, the Taliban targeted the Paktia’s governor convoy and the prosecutors’ vehicles on the highway.

 Meanwhile, Gulab Shah, a shopkeeper in Wagha Jan bazaar of Mohammad Agha district, also held similar views. He said the Taliban attacked a number of governmental officials in the bazaar this solar year.

 “Taliban once opened fire at government official in the middle of the bazaar and as a result some civilians also suffered causalities.”

He recalled a few months back militants killed the deputy governor, the governor’s spokesman and three others individuals in the same bazaar located on the Gardez-Kabul highway.

 A diver on the Kabul-Gardez highway, who wished to go unnamed, also confirmed insecurity had increased on the highway.

He said: “I have been seeing Taliban on the route on a daily basis and they check vehicles and look for government employees.”

Meanwhile, deputy provincial council chief Abdul Wakil confirmed receiving many complaints about insecurity on the Gardez-Kabul highway.

He said security forces should ensure security of the highway because it was a transit trade route.

Police spokesman Shapur Ahmadzai also confirmed insecurity on the Kabul-Gardez highway, but he said the problem was not as grave as claimed.

pk/ma