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Armed Attack Kills 10 Staff of Charity Clearing Afghan Land Mines

Ayaz Gul

   ISLAMABAD - Officials in Afghanistan said Wednesday thatgunmenassaulted
   the office of an international charity clearing land mines in the
   country, killing at least 10peopleandinjuringmore than a dozen others.
   The overnight deadly attack on Britain-based HALO Trust's campoccurred
   in the embattlednorthernBaghlanprovince, the scene of fierce fighting
   between Afghan security forces and Taliban insurgents.

   A provincial policespokesmantoldVOAthe victims were all Afghan
   citizenswhoworkatthede-mining camp, alleging that insurgents gathered
   them in a room beforespraying them with bullets.
   TalibanspokesmanZabihullahMujahid denied its involvement, saying
   theBaghlan-e-Markazidistrictwhere the "horrifying" assault took place
   late Tuesday was not controlled by the insurgents.
   "We condemn attacks on the defenseless & view it as brutality. We have
   normal relations withNGOs, our Mujahidin will never carry out such
   brutal acts," Mujahid wrote on Twitter.
   The HALO Trust denounced the attack, saying more than 100 de-miners
   from local communities were undertaking humanitarian missions in the
   area.

   "The (armed) group entered the camp and opened fire. Around 110 men,
   from local communities in northern Afghanistan, were in the camp having
   finished their work on nearby minefields," the charity said in a
   statement it posted on Twitter.

     [1]pic.twitter.com/clGGimjqN8
     -- The HALO Trust (@TheHALOTrust) [2]June 9, 2021

   The United Nations demanded a full investigationintothe incident,in
   order tobringthose responsibleto account.
   "It is repugnant that an organization that works to clear landmines and
   other explosives and better the lives of vulnerable people could be
   targeted," lamented RamizAlakbarov, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator
   in Kabul.
   The HALO Trust launched its Afghan operations in 1988 when the country
   was still under the decade long occupation of the then Soviet Union
   army, which ended in 1989.The organizationhas operationsin parts of the
   world where there is a need to remove post-warresidueslikeremovingland
   minesincluding in Africa,Asia,Europe,the MiddleEastand South America.
   The British-basedcharity says on its website it helps countries recover
   after conflict and clearing landmines is at the heart of its work. The
   group notes its completely Afghan-led program, with a workforce of
   2,600 staff, has made safealmost 80%of the country's recorded
   minefields and battlefields over the past 30 years.
   The deadly attack on Afghan de-miners came as the Taliban have
   intensified battlefield operations across the country and captured more
   than 14 districts since the United Statesand itsNATOallies began
   pulling out their troops from Afghanistan on May 1.
   The violence has killed hundreds of combatants on both sides and Afghan
   civilians in recent weeks.
   The foreign troop drawdown is expected to be completed by September11;a
   deadline set by U.S. President Joe Biden in April to endnearly 20years
   of U.S. involvement in the Afghan war.
   On Tuesday, the U.S. military announced it had completed more than half
   of theretrogradeprocess.
   The drawdown stems from the February 2020 agreement Washington
   negotiated with the Taliban in return for counterterrorism guarantees.
   The insurgents also pledged to negotiate a political settlement with
   other Afghan rivals to end four decades of war in the country.

   But the intra-Afghan dialogue process, which started last September,
   has met with little success amid fears the Taliban would intensify
   their campaign to regain power once all U.S. and NATO troops are out of
   Afghanistan.

References

   1. https://t.co/clGGimjqN8
   2. https://twitter.com/TheHALOTrust/status/1402496738838167556?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

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