.jpg)
Jahanzeb says he can no longer live in his home village in eastern Afghanistan where, when night falls, fear rules in “the kingdom of the Taliban”.
The terrified 30-year-old has fled to the nearby major city of Jalalabad and spends his days tediously filling sacks of flour for a pittance, separated from his family.
“I would prefer to be in my home district,” he told AFP, studiously pouring 49 kilograms of flour into a bag for which he will be paid the equivalent of five European cents.
“But I am here because there is always fighting over there. In the fields, houses, everywhere.”
Jahanzeb's village, Pacher, is an hour's drive away from Jalalabad, in the southeast of Nangarhar Province. “I miss it,” Jahanzeb said mournfully.
Only four or five of Nangarhar's 22 districts are considered safe with the others controlled or strongly influenced by the Taliban, according to local sources interviewed by AFP.
Where Jahanzeb hails from, Pacher Wa Agam district, falls into the latter category.
Its instability is a major concern as the country approaches the withdrawal of 75,000 Nato troops by the end of next year.
“At night-time it is the kingdom of the Taliban,” Jahanzeb said at the factory where he now works.
“They are attacking government security checkpoints. The authorities cannot come out of their offices. The presence of the district government is just in name. There is no security.”
Jahanzeb fears conditions will worsen when international forces leave as Taliban Islamists try to regain power since being overthrown by a US-led coalition in 2001.
“The situation is going to deteriorate,” he insisted.
On Sunday, an Afghan grand assembly, known as “loya jirga”, endorsed a crucial security agreement allowing some US troops to stay on in the country after 2014.
However, President Hamid Karzai has set conditions for signing the deal while some question whether it will be enough to keep insurgents at bay.
0 Comments