NATO-led forces have handed over responsibility for security to Afghan control in three former Taliban strongholds in the restive Helmand province, the provincial governor’s office said Saturday. Afghan security forces took control of Nad Ali, Nawa and Marjah Friday as part of the second wave of security transition announced by President Hamid Karzai at the end of November.
British forces have been operating in Nad Ali, a farming community, since 2006 and recently said the joint security effort had led to an 86 percent drop in violence in 2011 compared to 2010. But the insurgent threat in the district remains, underlined two days ago when 10 Afghan police were killed after their vehicle struck a roadside bomb. And locals say that while security may have improved in some areas, Taliban continue to operate and they still suffer from intimidation.
Afghan woman cuts off father-in-law’s genitals: An Afghan woman cut off her father-in-law’s genitals with a knife after he tried to sexually harass her, a doctor in eastern Afghanistan’s Ghazni province said Saturday. “One day when the husband was away from home he attempted to sexually harass his daughter-in-law and she cut off his genitals with a knife,” the doctor from a private hospital in Ghazni said on condition of anonymity.
The man went for treatment at the private hospital but was sent on to the capital Kabul for specialist treatment, he added. The incident took place two weeks ago but has only just come to light. According to figures in an Oxfam report in October, 87 percent of Afghan women report having experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence or forced marriage.
