Thirty eight days past when gunmen kidnapped 31 Hazaras in Zabul, Afghanistan. Where there no serious reaction by Afghan Government.
38 days before, the men were traveling by bus from Herat when they were seized in Zabul province, on the road to Kabul.
No group has said it’s carried out the abductions. Kidnappings for ransom are common in Afghanistan, especially by Afghan Taliban.
“The gunmen took money and phones from the Hazara men before driving them away. Their faces were covered and they were wearing military clothes.” One bus passenger told BBC Persian.
He said he and another man had been left behind because the gunmen had no room for them in their vehicles.
Afghan government reaction:
While Interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said police were “doing everything to ensure their safe release”, eyewitnesses, internal medias and internationals confirm that “police arrived very soon after there and they could see [the kidnappers]. people showed them to the police. Police said they would find them but didn’t chase them.”
District Governor Abdul Khaliq Ayoubi blamed the Taliban for the attack, Afghanistan’s Tolo News reported.
Although security officials have not spoken about the incident, local leaders such as Atta Jan Haqbayan, the head of the Zabul Provincial Council, have confirmed the incident.
The Afghan military forces launched a rescue operation in southern Zabul province t to free the 30 Hazara passengers who were kidnapped by unknown masked men, but the operation failed and they could not rescue the passengers yet.
The operation was launched in Khak-e-Afghan district of Zabul. So far, 36 insurgents have been killed and 50 others injured. Leading the operation was Kandahar Police Chief Gen. Abdul Raziq, Military Commander of Atal 205th Corps Maj. Gen. Abdul Hamid Hamid, and Zabul security officials. Tolo News reported.
Also Zabul acting Governor Mohammad Ashraf Nasiri had warned that if negotiations between the tribal elders and the armed masked men did not triumph that military action will be taken. and recently Mohammad Sarwar Danesh, second vice president in a meeting with Social Activists told in Parliament: “Government will use any possible way to rescue the passengers”
And this speech was all the government did.
Social Activists :
After the day when this case accident, happened people start holding Facebook campaigns, street protests, gatherings in different cities inside Afghanistan and all over the world and asked the government to take a serious step toward 30 kidnapped passengers and it still continues.
Social activists, students and Afghan migrants in foreign countries in their street gathering asks the international community that use their influence and force the Afghan government to take action for Afghans lives safety.
People believes that government is not following seriously such cases to rescue this citizens of Afghanistan. this activists says that government must explain to the people about why they could not rescues this passengers after about 2 months.
Activist says: …Hazaras are peaceful, friendly people who are civil activists and eager to bring changes in good ways, and they are always willing to pursue their goals through education in order to be useful in society. regretfully the Hazara Afghans have always been targeted by other tribes and nationalities inside Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran only because they are Afghan, Hazara and Shi Muslim . instance: 62% of them were killed in 1890s, by king Abdulrahman, thousands were murdered in 1992 at Kabul Afshar, thousands in Mazarisharif in 1998… We as humans should not watch and sit Apathetically! It’s our duty, specially the International Communities such as UN agencies and the Afghan government to investigate and handle the issue of 31 Hazara passengers who have been abducted for several days.
People and the families of the abducted Hazaras are still waiting on news about the fate of their beloved ones, keeping eyes at their doors for the past days.
“I want my dad back home,” said a little daughter of one of the abducted passenger who was returning from Herat to Kabul after taking her sister to a hospital.
His family called on the government to help their beloved ones return home safe and sound.
LOOK UP ! Your eyes could save 31 #kidnapped Hazaras, Ask for justice, supports and encouragements for rescuing them A Live !
Read more:
http://www.tolonews.com/en/afghanistan/18349-masked-men-abduct-30-hazara-passengers-in-zabul
http://www.kabulpress.org/my/spip.php?article227965
http://www.rferl.mobi/a/afghanistan-hazaras-mass-abduction-islamic-state/26869255.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/24/asia/afghanistan-kidnapping/
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