12 villages cut off as Taliban dynamite bridge

Monitoring Desk

KUNDUZ CITY: The Taliban have blown up a major bridge disconnecting 12 villages from the Imam Sahib district center in Kunduz province, local residents and officials said on Tuesday.

The residents complained about a sudden price hike after the Begum Joy bridge’s destruction that followed a military operation in the troubled district.

Arbab Habibullah, a tribal elder from Qarghaz village, told Pajhwok Afghan News the Taliban destroyed the bridge by emplacing landmines beneath it. “It was dynamited and as a result 12 villages were cut off from the district center,” he said.

The elder said reaching the district center by alternate routes took a lot of time, urging the government to repair the bridge as early as possible because thousands of people living in the 12 villages faced a great inconvenience.

A resident of Dehqaq Qashlaq village, Najibullah, said the bridge destruction had sent prices of daily use items soaring. He said they had to pay doubled taxi fare to reach the Imam Sahib district by taking alternate road.

Similarly a resident of Nawabad village, Mirwais, said food prices had increased manifold following the destruction of the Begum Joy bridge. According to him, the price of a sack of flour increased from 1300 afghanis to 1500 afghanis, a five kilogram ghee from 500 afs to 700afs and a 50-kg bag of sugar’s rate jumped from the previous 300 afs to 450afs.

Other residents expressed similar views and urged the government to reconstruct the bridge at the earliest.

Imam Sahib district chief Mahboobullah Sayedi confirmed the bridge had been damaged and said the issue had been shared with the provincial authorities who had pledged an early action.

Nimatullah Taimori, the governor’s spokesman, said the provincial administration had decided to rebuild the bridge soon. The military operation in the Imam Sahib district has displaced some 2,000 families to other areas, including the provincial capital, Kunduz City.