South residents demand urgent end to conflict

KABUL (Pajhwok): Perturbed residents coming all the way from southern provinces of Helmand, Kandahar, Uruzgan and Zabul to Kabul on Sunday asked the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan to help end the conflict.

Police did not allow the protesting residents of war-hit provinces in Kabul to set up a protest tent in front of UNAMA office but they did so after a verbal clash with police.

They chanted slogans “We want end of the war, save the great Kandahar, we don’t want conflict”.

According to reports, Taliban militants lately captured a number of districts in Helmand, Kandahar, Uruzgan and Zabul provinces with clashes ongoing in the capitals of Kandahar and Helmand.

On behalf of the protestors, Mohammad Jame, said: “We want both sides to put the conflict to an end, everyday our women, men and children are being killed in airstrikes and clashes, there is no place for injured left at hospitals and the people of Helmand and Kanadahar are displaced from one place to another on a daily basis.”

Calling on the mission of United Nations, the protestors said: “What your presence means here when people are being killed and displaced and for how long we will be sacrificed.”

Qudratullah Abid, another protestor, said the situation in Helmand, Kandahar, Uruzgan and Zabul had deteriorated and youth were being kidnapped and killed every day and they wanted a ceasefire from both sides.

He said they would set up tents in other places if the situation of the great Kandahar did not improve.

He urged the UN not to stay silence in such situation and accelerate efforts for ensuring a ceasefire and end of the conflict.

sa/ma