KUNDUZ (Pajhwok): The recent conflict in northern Kunduz province has made the lives of internally displaced families miserable as some of them complain they would not have a happy Eid this year.
In the past few months, the security situation has deteriorated in Kunduz with two districts --- Chardara and Dasht-i-Archi -- falling to the Taliban insurgents. The government has so far only managed to regain control of Chardara.
Three months back, clearing operations forced more than 100,000 people (18,000 families) to flee homes in Imam Sahib, Qala-i-Zal, Chardara, Ali Abad, and Gortapa areas.
Some of these internally displaced families are living in tents and in rented houses. They say in previous years they would celebrate Eid with a lot of enthusiasm and happiness, but this year the war has taken everything from them.
Nafisa, a displaced woman from Chardara, said they left home two months ago and still feared for the lives of her family members to return back home.
She has six children and her husband is a mental patient. She said life has become extremely difficult for them.
With watery eyes, she told Pajhwok Afghan News her children were very young and she had no choice but to work at people’s houses and earn some money for survival. “Eid has no value for me or my children. How can Eid bring joys to me when my house is in front line of war?”
Abdul Ghayor, who was displaced from Gortapa locality one and a half months ago, said: “Last year our area was very peaceful and we were all celebrating Eid with a lot of enthusiasm. But this year there is no Eid for us.”
The only way they could be happy, he said, was that if the government secured their localities and facilitated their safe return home.
Ghayor said he owned 10 acres of land and the harvests were enough for him and his eight family members. “But now I work as a manual labourer to survive.”
Kunduz police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini said displaced families had returned to their homes in areas where the operations had come to a close. He said a fewer number of families remained displaced and they would be allowed to return to their homes soon.
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