Taliban strikes close to student’s home
“Sometimes at night you would hear gunshots,” senior Amir Sajanie said. He traveled four years ago to the City of Kunduz where he lived there for an entire month. Sajanie got to experience what is like to live in a country where violence is just part of their daily lives.
Sajanie visited his family before the Taliban took over the city in September.
“I have uncles, aunts, cousins, and few of my dad’s friends. My family were not injured. a lot of them left the city,” Sajanie said.
The assault took place at night, where fighters launched attacks from different locations, according to BBC News. Fighters took over government buildings and the city’s central prison. Besides taking over the city, the Taliban emptied banks, seized weapons and gained a propaganda victory according to BBC.
Fighters also tried to take over the airport but failed due to American presence in the scene.
The city is important for Afghanistan because is used as a transport hub for the north of the country, and the more importance the city gets, the more corruption it brings.
“The ones that were supposed to implement the law, are doing what they are not supposed to do,” Sajanie said.
During his visit, Sajanie did not experience much violence during the day, only at night.
“I did not see much violence but sometimes at night you would hear gunshots and stuff like that,” Sajanie said.
Ever since NATO ended its combat mission in Afghanistan, violence has risen. A spokesperson of the Taliban told BBC’s news that The Taliban was trying to open fronts that would gain attention of the Afghan military from Kunduz. The U.S. recognized the levels of the problems but they hoped Afghanistan could retake the city.
The province of Kunduz has seen number of attacks from the Taliban since April which were caused by the Taliban and different allies.
Sajanie was not surprised when he heard the Taliban had taken over Kunduz because of what he experienced during his stay.
“I expected [fighting] because there is no law over there and people do whatever they want to do,” Sajanie said.
After the Taliban took over the city, the U.S sent troops to fight the Taliban and regain control of the city so Afghanistan could regain control.
According to The Washington Post, more than 100 civilians had been injured during the Taliban’s attack, and more than 16,000 people had fled the city.
Although he thinks the U.S. should not be involved in the fighting, he is glad they are because they are helping the civilians and are trying to give order.
“I really think the U.S. does not have to be involved in the fighting, but I’m glad they are involved because basically the U.S. is not corrupted like everything over there,” Sajanie said
When the attack took place, Americans troops were in another mission near the city. Later they were called to assist the Kuduz.
Sajanie also think that the U.S might be making things worse because some people do not like them.
“In a way I think they are making things worse because a lot of people do not want them (U.S.) there in the city. But in a way I think they are helping in a way trying to get back the city but a lot of people do not like them over there,” Sajanie said.
Amir thinks that the Taliban has gone too far with the corruption, but he also thinks that in some part is the citizens,” fault.
“I do not think it’s okay what the Taliban does to the people but at the same time is not alright of what the people did. This would not have happened if everyone was not being corrupted like fighting, ” Sajanie said.
A decade ago, the state of Afghanistan allied with the U.S. with the main goal to stop terrorism. Afghanistan’s current objective is to stop Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
According to The Washington Post, the president of the country, Ashraf Ghani, shared his views to the American people, stating that his goal with this new alliance is to rebuild the country, develop their economy and to stop the spread of terrorism that has destroyed Afghanistan over the years. Also, Ghani hopes to establish a democracy country.
Before the alliance with the U.S., Afghanistan was being controlled by the Taliban. There was a lot of corruption. In 2001, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan after the 9/11 attack.
After years of fighting and violence, the Afghani government gained control of Afghanistan and made an alliance pact with the U.S.
Ever since the alliance, the U.S. has tried to maintain peace with Afghanistan with the goal that terrorism will not spread any further to neighboring countries and incidents like 9/11 will not happen again.
The Taliban attack lasted weeks, where the U.S. sent 63 airstrikes while the Afghani government fought allies of the Taliban such as Al-Qaeda.
After weeks of fighting, the Taliban troops gave up and they abandoned the city.
Nancy Evora is a senior and this is her fourth year in the staff. Her first year she was a staff writer, second year she was the Health Editor, junior...