3. Biodata:
Abdul Jalil Tawakal, a tribal elder from Qala-i-Zal district’ Kunduz Province who together with ‘other local leaders has formed a militia to fight the Taliban. In villages across Kunduz province, where a misdirected NATO air strike killed 90 civilians in September, tribal elders say they have had enough of being caught in the middle of an escalating war. Background: Qalay-i-Zal District area came to the Taliban's attention with the opening 2009 of a supply route for US and NATO troops funnelling fuel and other materiel from Tajikistan over the border to military bases in Afghanistan. The massive convoys -- sometimes hundreds of trucks -- drew Taliban attacks, which in turn drew international forces, notably Germans who have 4,500 troops deployed in Kunduz, trapping locals in the crossfire. That points to another – and not new – problem. Often, government payment for arbaki or regular police is irregular. Than happens what many Afghans fear: The militias go and raise their income themselves from the civilian population. The reports quoted above also give examples that this not an unsubstantiated fear but already has become reality. There are first reports of skirmishes between different village militias in Kunduz that want to settle old scores from the civil war. Other militias ‘primarily stop Pashtuns, search them and take their mobile phones away’, according to a resident of Imam Sahib district. And they demand food from restaurant owners arguing that they would provide them with security.’