The Kabul-Kandahar highway, one of the most traveled roadways in Afghanistan, has quickly become one of the most dangerous places in the country with high rates of both insurgent and Illegal Armed Group (IAG) activity. On Friday, the Zabul Provincial Council (ZPC) joined the chorus of concerns over growing insecurity on the highway and pleaded for swift action to restore safe transit.
"Security threats have increased on the highway over the last two months and we demand tougher security measures be taken for the safety of the people," said Hajji Hashim Garani, a member of the ZPC.
Calls for action to be taken by the Kabul government and foreign forces to address the highway's growing dangers have become increased in volume and frequency as of late. The Governors of Ghazni, Maidan Wardak, Zabul and Kandahar provinces held a meeting on Sunday in Maidan Shahr, the capital city of Wardak province, to address the concerns of logistics and supply companies who have been subject to Taliban attacks on the Kabul-Kandahar highway.
Last month, a number of oil tanker drivers met with the Internal Security and Justice Committee of the Lower House to express their concerns over the increasing attacks by the Taliban on the Kabul-Kandahar highway. According to reports, over 570 oil tankers use the highway every day, and the Taliban targets at least three-a-day on average.
According to Muhammad Jan Rasoulyar, the Deputy Governor of Zabul, innocent civilians are often the victims of the Talibans' attacks along the road.
"The insurgents are planting mines alongside the Kabul-Kandahar highway, civilians are often killed as a result," Mr. Rasoulyar said. Mines and roadside Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) are a common insurgent tactic for targeting foreign and Afghan military convoys in transit, however, they more often than not result in the deaths and injuries of noncombatants traveling the same roads.
However, anti-government insurgents are not the only ones causing trouble on the Kabul-Kandahar highway. According to the ZPC, Illegal Armed Groups (IAGs), which have proliferated around the country in the last few years and have presented a growing problem for local security forces, were also reported to be running rampant on the highway. Unlike the Taliban, these groups are more profit-driven and their attacks on the highway are more similar to what one would expect from bandits than terrorists.
"The Illegal Armed Groups are robbing people and murdering them if any resist," said Fawzia Younas Kakar, a member of the ZPC.
The members of the ZPC maintained that the Taliban have also begun seeking profit from the insecurity of the highway. They reported that the insurgents have begun charging fees-for-safe-passage to commuters on the highway.
The Kabul-Kandahar highway is a stretch of 483 kilometers of paved road connecting Afghanistan's two largest cities. It is said that the Salar and Syed Abad districts of Wardak province are the most dangerous areas on the highway.
Millions of dollars in foreign funds, primarily from the U.S. and Japan, were used to repave the highway and make it accessible once again as a critical artery for commercial traffic and broader connectivity between Afghans in the south and the east. Yet if insurgents and IAGs are able to carry out attacks and exploit Kabul-Kandahar commuters with the frequency and impunity that has been increasingly observed, causing more and more travelers to think twice before they hit the road, then the ultimate purpose of those expenses is being defeated.