According to an Afghanistan NGO, there has been a sharp increase in the number of attacks in this year's first quarter, a recent study has revealed. Furthermore, the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office has let out that the first quarter saw 2331 attacks by armed opposition groups compared to 1581 during the same time last year, with a statistical increase of 47 percent in the crime rate, the New York Times reports. In fact, the director of the NGO office Tomas Muzik has said that 2013 will follow the marks of 2011 in becoming the most violent year, with the most attacks and victims. While Afghanistan army soldiers along with their American counterparts are planning to take over the security duties across the country as Taliban steps up for attacks, the American military has not sent any figures this year compared to last year's report on enemy attacks along with bar graphs. 

According to the spokesperson for American military Col. Thomas W. Collins, that they will not be releasing any statistics anymore, adding that Afghan Ministry can reveal some related information. The ministry too preferred to remain quiet in this regard, nevertheless a ministry official on condition of lack of individuality has said that ministry data reveal 40 percent increase in violence this year with 1,183 attacks as compared to 841 last year. The study has further shown that forcible opposition of the attacks on the international forces make up for only four percent of the total attacks and 73 percent against the Afghan security forces, while the attacks on civilians have been much more quantitatively. 

Having 1,00,000 international combat forces starting to withdraw from the group, the Afghan forces will have to face the Talibans alone by the end of 2014. According to the study report, the forcible opposition to violence has mostly affected areas where the foreign military forces are not available. 

As a concluding fact, the report says that the Afghan national security forces need to show their capability to deal with the Taliban in these violence-prone areas to fill the gap left by the international military forces.

(AW:Samrat Biswas)