As widely reported, dozens of civilians, many of them children, were killed in an Afghan air force attack on a religious school in the northern province of Kunduz some days ago. The reverberations of the attack that mostly killed children continue to jolt the neighbouring country and the conscience of the world.
Afghan Ministry of Defence spokesman, Mohammad Radmanish, claimed that the air raid was aimed at top Taliban commanders. "The air strike killed more than 30 Taliban fighters, including nine commanders," he said. "The Taliban training centre was bombed and no civilians were present. Foreign fighters from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were among the people killed in the strike." That, however, was not the case.
Kunduz was run over by the Taliban in September 2015 after the withdrawal of US led Nato’s ISAF. The next month the Americans mercilessly bombed the Kunduz Trauma Centre administered by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) or Doctors without Borders, killing more than 40 people, many of them patients on their beds.
Reports say the recent attack happened during a graduation ceremony at a madrassa in Dasht-e-Archi district, which is controlled by the Taliban and comprises mostly Pashtun population.
Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai has condemned the strike, saying “such raids, carried out in the name of fighting terrorism, on our homes, hospitals and religious facilities are against all principles.” On the other hand, Omar Zakhilwal, the Afghan ambassador to Pakistan, admitted in a tweet that the raid occurred on a madrassa and killed many civilians and children.
Several questions have arisen following the attack. Did the US forces in Afghanistan, fraught with uncertainty but who have delinked themselves from the bombing calling it an Afghan affair, provide details of the target to Afghan forces? Was the deadly Kunduz bombing unintended or premeditated plan to scuttle the Afghan peace process by inflaming the Taliban amidst the prevailing war babble and perpetual warfare? What purpose the current massive use of brutal force against Afghan civilians under President Trump is achieving? Would the episode not further induce instability in the war-torn country? Can this incident of mass killing seen in isolation from killings of Muslims in Kashmir and Gaza? What role Indian RAW and Indian-provided gunships play in the deadly Kunduz episode? How successful has been American entanglement in Afghanistan with efforts to increase Indian influence in Afghanistan? The inexorable, logical conclusion seems that achieving peace in Afghanistan is now more fragmented and illusive than ever before following the killing of these children.
