By Shadi Khan Saif
KABUL
Afghans in the country's troubled eastern Nangarhar province expressed their anger on Thursday about a surge in militancy they have witnessed in recent months.
Lying between the capital Kabul and the restive Pakistan border, the province has seen an uptick in violence in recent months with a growing presence of fighters claiming to represent the Syria-based militant group Daesh.
The new group's presence has sparked violent clashes with the Taliban and invited a campaign of U.S. drone strikes aimed at wiping it out.
Local elders gathered in the provincial capital Jalalabad and met with a delegation from the upper house of parliament, the Masharano Jirga, to send a unanimous message about their concerns to the central government in Kabul.
Abdul Basir Sabawoon, a local community elder, said it was a "war-like" situation in some of the border districts and that the government should be consulting local representatives about how to act.
Sabawoon criticized the senate delegation for "being confined to the Royal Palace and traveling in VIP convoys that give very little understanding about the realities."
While the parliamentary delegation’s head Dr. Zalmay Zabuli claimed the security situation was not as bleak as portrayed in the press another member, Senator Lutfullah Baba, held the opposite view, claiming the security forces had lost control of several districts to militants.
“One day militants cross over from Pakistan with Daesh flags and dictate terms over locals, the next day Taliban militants come from the same place and spread terror,” Baba claimed, suggesting that the militants sheltered across the border in Pakistan.
U.S. drone strikes in Nangarhar have killed more than 100 Taliban and Daesh militants in the past week.
According to Afghanistan's intelligence agency the National Directorate for Security, the chief of Daesh in Afghanistan Hafiz Saeed Khan, his second-in-command and another senior leader, the former Pakistani Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid were all killed in the drone strikes.
Last week press freedom advocates Reporters Without Borders claimed that regions like Nangarhar and neighboring Badakshan were becoming "black holes" for information because militants were threatening journalists.
