Ceasefire to End at Midnight amid Reports of Scattered Violence

A three-day Eid ceasefire between the Afghan government and the Taliban is coming to an end at midnight on Saturday amid reports of heavy fighting between the Afghan security forces and the Taliban in some parts of the country.

Political leaders said that Taliban attacks during the Eid truce are raising serious questions on the modality of the government’s peace-oriented policy with the group.

“It will be good news if there is a permanent ceasefire in the country. All barriers in the way of ceasefire should be removed and people should be given the power,” said Sayed Akbar Agha, a former Taliban commander.

“The incidents that happened raises the question that who did all these? We have said this in the past that there are several militant groups here and the government needs to tackle them all,” said Sayed Ishaq Gailani, chairman of the National Solidarity Movement of Afghanistan.

The Afghan government has been insisting that the Taliban should agree on a permanent truce as it makes the fundamental aspiration of the Afghan people.

“Permanent ceasefire is the fundamental demand of the Afghan people and the government,” said Dawa Khan Menapal, head of the Government’s Media and Information Center. “The Taliban’s war does not have legitimacy.”

“We are fully prepared to defend the Afghan people within the framework of a comprehensive working plan and foil any possible attack and evil planning of the enemies after the ceasefire,” said Rohullah Ahmadzai, spokesman for the Ministry of Defense.

This comes weeks after several attacks rocked Afghanistan including last week’s car bombing in front of Sayed Al-Shuhada school in the west of Kabul that killed over 80 students and wounded 150 more and a recent attack on a guest house packed with students in Logar.

The Afghan government blames the Taliban for both attacks. But the Taliban has denied any involvement.

On Friday, a heavy explosion happened at a mosque in Shakar Dara district north of Kabul in which 12 civilians, including the imam of the mosque, were killed and at least 15 more were wounded.

The Ministry of Defense (MoD) said Saturday that at least 40 people were killed and wounded in separate Taliban attacks in nearly 10 provinces despite a previous commitment by the group to halt fighting during the three days of Eid ceasefire.

Taliban has rejected the allegations and has blamed the government for not honoring its ceasefire commitments.

According to the data gathered by TOLOnews, Baghlan, Faryab, Takhar, Badakhshan, Kunduz, Balkh, Logar, Kapisa, Farah, Herat, Laghman, Maidan Wardak, Kapisa, Uruzgan and Helmand witnessed fighting between the government forces and the Taliban.

In the latest incident of violence, one police force member and two civilians were wounded in an explosion in Sarubi district in Kabul on Saturday morning.