News - Afghanistan

Afghan senators on Tuesday urged President Hamid Karzai and the government to revise the strategy of dealing with the Taliban towards taking a tougher line with them.

The senators said the current approach is soft and will not work because the Taliban have no regard for the people of Afghanistan.

The calls come after the Friday suicide attack in Faryab killed as many as 40 people and injured around 50 more – mostly civilians who were exiting a mosque on the first day of Eid al-Adha.

"They should be eliminated because they are intending to destroy the people of Afghanistan," said senator Sayed Farukh Shah Jenab, who is part of a delegation investigating the bombing, on Tuesday.

"Our security forces should eliminate them. The peaceful approach to Taliban is not effective and will not work," he added.

Another senator urged the national Ulema Council to declare jihad against the Taliban for the bloodshed in Faryab province.

"I don't know why they are not declaring jihad against them, why the Ulema is quiet," senator Ali Akbar Jamshidi said. "We seriously urge the Ulema Council to perform their responsibility and declare jihad against these heretics."

The head of Afghanistan's Ulema Council went with Karzai to Faryab on Sunday and accused Pakistan of planning the suicide attacks.

"We spread the Islamic religion to the others and they announce jihad against us. They themselves have said that jihad in Afghanistan is the defense of Pakistan," Qeyamudin Kashaf said Sunday, condemning suicide attacks for going against the tenants of Islam.