Senators want Kandahar officials dismissed

KABUL or upper house of the Parliament on Sunday called for security officials of southern Kandahar province to be dismissed after failing to prevent a wave of insurgent attacks.

Militants, including suicide bombers, launched a string of explosions and gunfire at government buildings in the southern city of Kandahar, leaving 23 attackers and two policemen dead, with the sporadic clashes still ongoing. More than 40 people were injured as gun-battles entered a second day on Sunday.

Senator Hidayatullah Rihayee accused local military and government officials of having links with the Taliban. He urged the Afghan government to dismiss them.

“Local officials have been claiming they are able to ensure security for the province, but they are doing nothing in real,” he said.

All corrupt officials should be removed from government institutions in Kandahar, another senator, Maulvi Abdul Wahab Urfan, said.

He suggested fellow senators to meet President Hamid Karzai and ask him to dismiss security officials for their failure to provide security for residents of the volatile province.

“They (Kandahar officials) don’t think about residents, because their own sons have been living in America and London,” female representative from southwestern Farah province, Bilqis Roshan, said.

Daud Asas from southern Zabul province said there had been no governance in Kandahar, where no police chief was appointed nearly a month after the acting police chief took the charge. He said the new police chief was not familiar with the region.

Security of Kandahar had a direct impact on the country’s entire situation, he said. “Lack of security in Kandahar means lack of security of the entire country,” he added.

The interior ministry spokesman, Zmarai Bashari, said an operation had been launched in Kandahar to clear areas of insurgents and that a new provincial police chief would be appointed soon.

He said that security forces took two days to bring under control the situation in Kandahar in order to prevent civilian casualties.

frm/ma

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