3 Killed in Qandahar Bombing as the UNO leaves; South Asia now Most Dangerous

On Tuesday, insurgents bombed an Afghan security company, Homayun at Qandahar, wounding at least 38 of them. Three persons were killed. Homayun provides security services to NATO troops, and this must have been in part an inside job– the firm could not have been hit this way otherwise.

The UN has pulled its workers from Qandahar, on grounds that it has become too dangerous ahead of a planned US military assault on it.

Ahmad Wali Karzai, a leading official in Qandahar province and the half-brother of President Hamid Karzai, complained about the decision. Showing how out of touch the Afghanistan governing elite is, he said, “”You get one or two incidents once or twice a week,” he told The Associated Press. “That shouldn’t be a concern. A suicide attack can happen anywhere.”

The National Counter-Terrorism Center released the results of a study showing that the northern part of South Asia, i.e. Pakistan and Afghanistan, is now more deadly than the Middle East (including Iraq and Yemen). It says,

“The numbers show that nearly 7,000 civilians were killed and injured in Afghanistan terror attacks last year, a 44 per cent increase over 2008. In Pakistan, more than 8,600 were killed and wounded last year, a 30 per cent jump.”

One way to end an insurgency is by negotiating with the insurgents. but neither India nor the US want Karzai to do so. When Karzai met Indian PM Manmohan Singh on Monday, India twisted his arm not to compromise with the Taliban.