The Voice of Kaziristan

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KAZIRISTAN: THE ENDLESS WAR
Battle between government and emirate forces continues as millions are caught in the middle.

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[/div] JARABAD (Kaziristan) - Azyan is a 26-year-old widow. Her family has been destroyed by the 21-year war that afflicts Kaziristan. Azyan’s husband and two of her three children were killed in an airstrike during clashes between government forces loyal to interim President Farjaad Durrani and the rebel militias of the self proclaimed Islamic Emirate of Great Kaziristan. She, with her remaining child, is among the 670,000 internally displaced people who have been forced to flee their villages. While negotiations as part of the peace process are underway, war in Kaziristan continues, and more than half of the country is contested between government forces and the rebels affiliated with the self-proclaimed Islamic Emirate of Great Kaziristan. The impact of war on the civilian population is devastating. According to all international humanitarian organisations, more than two-thirds of the population lives in areas affected by the conflict. Informal settlements and improvised refugee camps have multiplied — there are 20 of them in the capital city of Jarabad alone, with tens of thousands of people living in precarious conditions.

It has been a freezing winter in Kaziristan: good for the parched earth after two years of drought, but disastrous for thousands of refugees across the country. The hundreds of families who live in the Tazraq camp on the outskirts of Jarabad have been there anywhere from 15 years to 5 days; knee-deep in freezing mud, they watch life go by. They all belong to the same clan and come from different villages in the Jarabad district. Caught in the crossfire between the forces of the provisional government and the Emirate, they had no choice but to flee — victims of an advancing front line, taken by surprise by the disasters of war. For them, the future is a mirage: Many are without official documents, making them disappear in a mist of bureaucratic despair. Azyan is one of them. Her concern about the present is that her child get something to eat.

When we met her, Azyan had just arrived in the Tazraq camp after a bomb killed her husband and two daughters. They were in the yard, while she was inside their house with the other children. The bomb fell in the courtyard; the wall of the house protected half of the family, but for the other half there was no escape. In the explosion, shrapnel hit her in the right thigh, passing through; she was losing a lot of blood and there was no time to wait for help. She blocked the hemorrhage with her hijab while looking after the little survivor, who was untouched except for the scars that such experiences carve into the soul. She collected the remains of her husband and daughters and waited — with her whole family — both the dead and the living, for two days. Until an army truck came to take them away, to Jarabad, to join other members of her clan. Azyan took her dead along and buried them in a cemetery not far from the camp. She washes clothes, cleans people’s houses and looks after those who are ill to earn a couple of dinars a day, enough to guarantee some food to the child, but not enough to pay for the medicines that her son would need. Besides feeding him and hoping he’ll heal, there is not much more she can do.

According to international surveys and research, the Islamic Republic of Kaziristan was the worst place in Europe to be born in 1995. That may still be true today. Poverty, lack of electricity, lack of clean water, and sectarian violence are simply facts of life. The country has seen some 30 years of violence, with 21 uninterrupted years of conflict between the provisional government led by various military and civilian figureheads over the course of the last two decades, and the extremist groups gathered around Emir Khalid Al-Durquba of the self-proclaimed Islamic Emirate of Great Kaziristan. Young Kaziris are facing a crisis of hopelessness.

June's presidential elections offer few prospects for relief. After the collapse of Government-Emirate peace talks earlier this year, violence has spiked. The Emirate has carried out a string of suicide bombings in Jarabad and across the country in the run-up to the vote, which has already been delayed several times over security concerns. In response, the Kaziri National Army has ramped up raids and airstrikes. A security forces commando raid in Emirate-held territory earlier this month left up to 35 civilians dead. The violence has had a suffocating effect on the lives of over three million Kaziris. Conflict dominates politics, leaving little room for discourse or action on a raft of sorely neglected social and economic issues. The young are carrying the heavy burdens of the past and receiving little support from a weak government that barely holds control of the capital city of Jarabad, or from the thugs of the Emirate in areas they control.

The ramifications of prolonged violence and uncertainty extend beyond the realm of politics. Kaziris’ psyches, like the country, have been ravaged by war. As countries struggle to cope with the legacy of conflict, the psychological damage often goes overlooked. No matter the outcome of the presidential election or of a future peace deal with the Emirate, collective war trauma will continue to haunt the next generations of Kaziris if it goes unaddressed. I am one of the many children of Kaziristan left scarred by the war. The image of a young, nervous Kaziri soldier pointing a rifle at my forehead because he suspected I had a bomb underneath my shirt haunted me for years. A poll released last week revealed just how devastating conditions in Kaziristan have become: 91 percent of respondents said they were “suffering.” No respondents said they were “thriving.” When the same population was asked to predict their quality of life over the next five years, they predicted it would decline. The majority of the adults interviewed were aged 25 or younger. Kaziristan’s young people have reached consensus on pessimism.

If Kaziris are to climb out of darkness and build better lives, every district at minimum needs rehabilitation centers and publicly available mental health care services, especially in rural areas. These would need monitoring and supervision to ensure quality care. The government must also roll out awareness campaigns to fight the mental health stigma in Kaziristan, focusing on the struggles that women and girls face. With much of the country caught in perpetual war, even these basic standards can prove unachievable. Fortunately, I was able to seek the proper care and treatment in Westernesse to battle my post-traumatic stress disorder. Most other Kaziris, some just like me and some who have suffered far more, do not have that opportunity. Their pain endures, while the government, which claims to represent them, remains silent.

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BOMB BLAST IN JARABAD KILLS 55, INJURES 97
Security forces struggle to hold control of the Jarabad district as Emirate attacks intensify.

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[/div]JARABAD (Kaziristan) - A suicide bombing has killed 55 people and injured 97 others in the centre of Jarabad, officials say. Attackers drove a truck loaded with explosives past a police checkpoint in a secure zone, home to government offices and foreign embassies. The Emirate have said they carried out the attack, the deadliest for months. A week ago, Emirate militants killed 22 people in a luxury Jarabad hotel. Witnesses say the area, also home to a hospital and a shopping zone known, was crowded with people when the bomb exploded on Tuesday at about 13:15.

According to a witness, the area looked like a butcher's shop afterwards. "First of all we thought it was inside our house," said Abdul-Alim Nasrallah, who was eating lunch with his family. Then he went outside and saw scattered bodies. "It is very, very inhumane." he added. President Durrani has condemned the bombing as a crime against humanity. The attack is the deadliest in Jarabad in several months. In February, 113 people were killed in bomb attacks across Kaziristan in one week. The country's security forces in particular have suffered heavy casualties at the hands of the Emirate, who want to re-impose their strict version of religious law in the country. In March, 24 people were killed by a suicide bomb attack in Jarabad.

After suffering setbacks and heavy casualties at the hands of the Emirate in 2019, security forces came into this year with what government and military officials acknowledge were relatively modest goals: hang on till the end of the fighting season without major collapses. But with months of heavy fighting still ahead, 2020 is already shaping up to be worse for the National Army and the National police. The forces are struggling to maintain a stalemate. Several military officials described desertion as such a problem that soldiers and police officers in some critical areas had simply been barred from returning home on leave, keeping them on the front lines for months straight.

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INSURGENTS WIPE OUT NATIONAL ARMY COMPANY
“The Minjar province is on the verge of collapse,” said provincial governor Dadvar Omarzai.

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[/div]MINJAR (Kaziristan) - Emirate fighters killed or captured an entire Kaziri National Army company of more than 40 soldiers on Thursday, National Army officials said, the latest in a series of major attacks by the militant group. The attack, in which the insurgents were reported to have killed 13 soldiers and taken 27 prisoner, took place in northeastern Minjar province, close to the province's north-eastern border with the Durquba province, the stronghold of the self-proclaimed Islamic Emirate of Great Kaziristan.

In the assault, a large force of Emirate insurgents surrounded a base in the Mir Adina district. After four hours of fighting, the militants captured or killed all of the soldiers in their base, as well as others at two outposts nearby, according to Dadvar Omarzai, head of the Minjar provincial council. The episode was one of the deadliest in a weeklong insurgent campaign that has killed, wounded or captured 60 soldiers in the district, Mr. Omarzai said. “The province is on the verge of collapse,” Mr. Omarzai said. “The fighting has gone on for a week, but the government is not paying any attention.”

President Farjaad Durrani confirmed the attack and said that two security outposts were captured by the Emirate. “We lost contact with all of the personnel there,” he said. “We don’t know the casualty figures.” Reinforcements, including commandos and air support, were deployed to the district as fighting continued, President Durrani said. The area of Minjar has been the site of constant conflict for years, and the insurgents have made numerous efforts to take control of the district. The heavily mountainous area offers them promise of a border sanctuary.

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SECURITY FORCES STRUGGLE TO RETAKE MIR ADINA
President Durrani: "No need to let the enemy create panic through terror”

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[/div]MINJAR (Kaziristan) - Kaziri security forces were on saturday struggling to retake the key north-eastern district of Mir Adina, in the Province of Minjar from Emirate control, as insurgents attacked military convoys on the main supply routes and dug in around the town. After Thursday's attacks, Government forces had retreated to an airport on the outskirts of the city of Minjar, so they could fly in some support. But convoys of troops driving up to join the battle for Mir Adina have been slowed by roadside bombs and ambushes, and there are reports that insurgent forces are pushing towards the provincial capital.

President Durrani urged calm, as he insisted the army and the police were already reclaiming parts of the district of Mir Adina, and were well prepared for the biggest challenge of the 21-year war against the Emirate. “I want to reassure my countrymen that the situation in Minjar is under control. No need to let the enemy create panic through terror,” President Durrani said.

“It is a disaster for the Durrani government,” claims opposition leader Benesh Hasanzai, describing the government as “totally disorganised”. The Kaziri troops in Mir Adina numbered 500 including National Police forces, she said, while local reports put the number of Emirate attackers at fewer than 200. Insurgent troops swept through the town in a pre-dawn assault on Thursday. Security forces collapsed and fled, even though they outnumbered the attackers, who freed prisoners from a jail, visited the local hospital and paraded through town taking selfies in the centre.

The rapid collapse of Mir Adina alarmed Kaziris in Minjar and other towns in the province. The government had argued that even as the insurgency gathered strength in the countryside, security forces could protect urban areas. Government officials and families who had the means to leave Mir Adina fled Wednesday, before the Emirate blocked the main routes out. “From this morning, the Emirate has been setting up checkpoints in and around the town of Mir Adina, looking for the government employees,” one resident told the Voice of Kaziristan over the telephone. “Yesterday it was possible still for people to get out of the town, but today it is too late because all roads are under insurgents control.”

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INSURGENTS ADVANCE IN MINJAR
Emirate militants occupy areas in the city's northern outskirts as over one thousand families flee.

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[/div]MINJAR (Kaziristan) - Clashes between security forces and Emirate militants pressing their offensive for Minjar, the capital of the homonymous north-eastern Province, has forced more than 1,000 families to flee from their homes in the area, a National Army official said on Monday. The insurgents' push on Minjar, launched Thursday when the self-proclaimed Islamic Emirate group captured the village of Mir Adina, has become the most significant threat so far to the province. It is seen as an attempt by the Emirate to stage a counteroffensive after suffering a major blow last year when security forces successfully routed the group from the outskirts of Jarabad after a last-resort ground and air offensive that resulted in the death of thousands of civilians and security forces members.

The spokesperson of the National Army said that the over 1,000 families that fled Mir Adina were in a "difficult situation" and have settled in southern and western Minjar suburbs. Tents, food and other aid are being sent to them from the central province of Fandahar, he said. The National Government is also assessing the situation with the provincial government in order "to provide the displaced people, who are undergoing difficult conditions, with better services and help," he added.

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[/div]On Sunday, sporadic clashes were still underway, according to security officials in Minjar. The center of the city has been firmly in the hands of Jarabad government forces, though some of the far suburbs and outskirts had fallen to the Emirate, which last year captured large swaths of territory in north-eastern Kaziristan, including the provincial capital of Durquba that currently serves as the terrorist group's major stronghold, along with about a third of the central province of Fandahar. That blitz stunned the National Government and pushed the country into its worst crisis since the beginning of hostilities in 1999.

Kaziri National Airforce airstrikes were backing land forces north of Minjar this morning and were targeting outposts captured Sunday by the extremists, the officials added, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to talk to the media. They described the provincial capital of Minjar as a ghost town with empty streets and closed shops after most of the residents had deserted it.

In its local radio bulletin, the self-proclaimed Islamic Emirate of Great Kaziristan group claimed to have complete control since saturday of at least four areas and most of a fifth area to the north of Minjar. Minjar, and Fandahar to the west, were major Emirate strongholds during the initial stages of the war between 1999 and 2006, and fighting in Minjar was especially costly for kaziri security forces that suffered over 3000 casualties in a siege that lasted almost two years. Many of the militants were eventually forced to North-Eastern Kaziristan or go into hiding in the latter years.

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CIVILIANS DROWN FLEEING MINJAR AS CITY NEARLY ENCIRCLED
“I’ve seen with my own eyes my family disappear under the water,” said a witness.

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[/div]MINJAR (Kaziristan) - A boat carrying fleeing civilians across a river from Minjar sank Thursday, killing at least three people, as encircled security forces fight to defend the city against emirate militants. Two children and their mother drowned crossing the river, one the few escape routes left for civilians hoping to leave the besieged town as the war against the self-proclaimed Islamic Emirate intensifies. Two other people believed to have been on the boat remained missing, national police said. “I’ve seen with my own eyes my family disappear under the water,” said the father, who watched from the insurgents-held side of the river as the boat sank with his wife, son and daughter aboard.

“There was no place for me on the departing boat, so I had waited with my second daughter for the next one,” he said by telephone . “Life has become worse than hell in Minjar; hunger, death and shelling,” he said, his voice breaking with grief. “And after all that suffering, I lost my family before my eyes”. His’s family had spent four days picking their way across the city, moving slowly to avoid shelling, sniper fire and explosive devices.

His story highlights the plight of an estimated 40,000 civilians in Minjar. Already suffering shortages of water, food and medicines, the city is now under bombardment from emirate forces as they pursue the battle to take Minjar that began March 20. A spokesperson of the National Police taking part in the defense efforts said Minjar was now all but encircled, the only side that had yet to be occupied by emirate forces being part of the south-western bank of the river. “We are on the verge of collapse,” he added.

Civilians have been using anything that floats to help them cross the river, provincial council head Dadvar Omarzai said. “They are using empty refrigerators, wooden cupboards and kerosene barrels as makeshift boats,” Omarzai told Voice of Kaziristan. He said more than 600 families had managed to get across. “It’s totally unsafe and this is why innocent people are drowning,” he said. Some die before even reaching the river, killed by sniper fire from Islamic Emirate lines or by explosive devices along the roads, according to a spokesperson of the local Kaziri Red Crescent chapter.

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