Honouring Ramadan

"There was blood everywhere, and we could see hundreds of people shouting and crying, including women and children."
"I saw a woman dead while her two kids were crying sitting next to her, and they were covered in blood. The entire area seems like a graveyard with fresh blood on it."
Sharafuddin, 21, kitchenware shop owner, Urgun, Afghanistan

"It was a very brutal suicide attack against poor civilians. There was no military base nearby."
Mohammad Reza Kharoti, administrative chief, Urgun district

"Today's appalling attack during Ramadan -- an occasion that should be observed in a spirit of peace and compassion -- should be condemned in the strongest possible terms, and the perpetrators must be held accountable."
Jan Kubis, UN representative to Afghanistan

BBC - Asia

A typically boilerplate United Nations statement of condemnation. But, under the circumstances, what else can be said? The Taliban stated unequivocally that they would never have carried out such an operation, somewhat sanctimoniously given their record of atrocities. But perhaps they do draw the line somewhere. It has been stated that the dead are mostly children and women. People out shopping for Ramadan, a celebratory occasion.

The suicide bomber blew himself up in a Toyota sport utility vehicle that had been carefully packed with explosives. He chose a busy market near a mosque in the east of the country. With 89 people dead and perhaps more to follow as some of those severely injured may not survive their hospital stay, this marks the deadliest terrorist attack on civilians since 2001. The victims were buried under the rubble of the destruction.

Dozens of mud-brick shops were destroyed, cars were flipped and trees were stripped. Testimony of the entire country's instability even while American troops are preparing to leave, and Afghans worry that all the civil and social gains that have been made in the past ten years will be reversed with the return of the Taliban. The two presidential candidates in strife over the outcome of the second vote, plan to govern as though the Taliban did not exist.

Even while one of the candidates disputing the election results, Abdullah Abdullah, stated mournfully: "People were shocked, and we are shocked, but this is the sad reality of Afghanistan."

Accusations of wide-spread fraud left the country hovering on the brink of possible ethnic/tribal war as Abdullah Abdullah, former finance minister who lost by a slim (corrupt) lead in the last election to Hamid Karzai and his rival Ashraf Ghani, former finance minister, each threatened to lead a divided country.

The fraud allegations has resulted in an agreement from both sides, led by American diplomatic intervention, to agree to a full audit and re-count of the eight million ballots cast under international supervision. The country remains in turmoil with civilian deaths up 17% over the same period in the previous year, according to the United Nations.

Nothing much to celebrate in Afghanistan, Ramadan aside.