Parwan

General description of the province

Parwan Province is located north of Kabul and surrounded by Bamyan, Baghlan, Kapisa, Kabul and Wardak provinces.

More than twothirds of the province is mountainous or semimountainous terrain while about one quarter of the area is flat land (³⁸⁷). Parwan Province is made up of the following districts: Bagram, Charikar, Ghorband (or Siagherd), Jabalussaraj, Kohe Safi, Salang, Sheikhali, Shinwari, Surkhe Parsa and Saydkhel (³⁸⁸). Parwan is estimated to have 664,502 inhabitants; its capital Charikar houses an estimated 57,746 (³⁸⁹).

Dari and Pashtu are the main languages spoken in the province; however Dari speakers outnumber Pashtu speakers by a ratio of 5 to 2 (³⁹⁰). According to an anonymous source in Kabul, 70 % of Parwan’s inhabitants are Tadjik, 18 % Pashtun, 11 % Hazara and 1 % Turkmen (³⁹¹).

Ethnic Tajiks have a presence in every district in Parwan and are the majority in Salang. Shinwari has a Pashtun majority and Ghorband a significant Pashtun population (³⁹²). Parwan Province also has a population of Kuchis or nomads whose numbers vary in different seasons (³⁹³). According to a source in Kabul, Tajiks live predominantly in Charikar, Salang, Jabalussaraj, Saydkhel, Bagram, Surkh-e Parsa and some parts of Sheikhali districts while Pashtuns predominantly live in the more restive districts of Shinwari, Koh-e Safi and parts of Ghorband. Hazaras and the small Turk minority reside in Shekhali and Surkh-e Parsa districts (³⁹⁴).

(³⁸⁷) MRRD, Parwan Provincial Profile, n.d.

(³⁸⁸) Humanitarian Response, AFGHANISTAN: Admin Level 3 Boundaries, based on AGCHO, 25 September 2012.

(³⁸⁹) UNOCHA, Afghanistan: Population estimate for 2015, 26 August 2015.

(³⁹⁰) MRRD, Parwan Provincial Profile, n.d.

(³⁹¹) International organisation, e-mail, 15 September 2015. The local contact is an international organisation active in the province. The organisation wished to remain anonymous for security reasons.

(³⁹²) Ruttig, T., Ghorband – A valley once friendly, 19 July 2011.

(³⁹³) MRRD, Parwan Provincial Profile, n.d.

(³⁹⁴) International organisation, e-mail, 15 September 2015. The local contact is an international organisation active in the province. The organisation wished to remain anonymous for security reasons.

Background on the conflict and actors in Parwan

Surkh-e Parsa is also inhabited by Sunni Hazara, who are, according to analyst Thomas Ruttig, traditionally at odds with the Shia Hazara in Bamyan and therefore supportive of Hezb-e Islami (³⁹⁵).

Through the province runs Highway 1 connecting Kabul with Pule Khumri and other northern provincial capitals.

From the Charikar, the principal access road to Bamyan, the Ghandak Highway runs over the Shibar pass and through the Ghorband valley (³⁹⁶). In Bagram lies an important military airfield which once was the largest American military base in the country where at its peak 40,000 military personnel and civilian contractors lived. The base also houses an infamous detention centre, previously run by the US but handed over to the Afghan government by the end of 2014 (³⁹⁷). The base still houses the bulk of the remaining 9,800 US troops in Afghanistan (³⁹⁸).

In recent years, the security situation in Parwan deteriorated steadily due to insurgent activity and clashes between AGEs and ANSF, but equally through the presence of illegal armed groups, often thought to be linked with local powerbrokers, and criminality. Widespread firearms possession, poverty and unemployment contribute to these developments (³⁹⁹). In the large Ghorband valley, which stretches over the districts Shinwar, Ghorband and Shekhali, security has deteriorated since 2009. The ANSF responded with various clearing operations in restive areas (⁴⁰⁰).

Reportedly, in 2015 there were 150 ALP in Ghorband (Siagherd), 116 with 50 ‘volunteers’ in Shinwari and 134 in Koh-e Safi districts, although it was difficult to determine the exact presence on the ground as ALP are regularly targeted by AGEs (⁴⁰¹). According to a local official, quoted by Pajhwok, in July 2015 the province had about 1,000 policemen.

He said the province needed 3,000 more to maintain law and order (⁴⁰²). Besides ANSF, IMF remained active in the province in and around the military airbase in Bagram and in the Ghorband valley mainly through airpower and the use of UAVs or drones. The raid on a local powerbroker’s compound in Charikar in June 2015, with international ground troops and air support, was an anomaly in this respect (⁴⁰³).

In 2014, Landinfo noted that the insurgent groups active in the province included the Taliban, Hezb-e Islami, IMU and Al Qaeda (⁴⁰⁴). Thomas Ruttig reported in 2011 that Pashtuns in Ghorband have traditionally been pro-Hezb-e Islami but the Taliban has been able to absorb some of its structures during their regime. Local Taliban networks have been reactivated and a provincial shadow administration has been set up (⁴⁰⁵).

A source in Kabul stated (⁴⁰⁶):

‘The Taliban in the province are constituted primarily by locals. In the mountainous Ghorband valley, Shinwari is a predominantly Pashtun district while Sia Gird [Ghorband] is a mixture of Pashtun and Tajiks. Koh-e-Safi district is located on the eastern part of the province with a Pashtun population (Safi). The presence of insurgents can be attributed to numerous factors: one is the perception of marginalisation by the communities from the provincial government dominated by Jamiat-affiliated Tajiks which has contributed to the alliance of former HIG [Hezb-e Islami/Gulbuddin] commanders with Taliban; another is unresolved grievances and political divisions of past decades nurtured by key powerbrokers to further their political goals. An additional element, is the rural poverty of mountain valleys with deeply traditional and isolated communities sympathetic to religious fundamentalism, among other reasons’

(³⁹⁵) Ruttig, T., Ghorband – A valley once friendly, 19 July 2011.

(³⁹⁶) Landinfo, Temanotat Afghanistan Sikkerhetsoppdatering, 9 January 2014, p. 19.

(³⁹⁷) Time, Inside Afghanistan’s Bagram Airfield, 27 February 2015.

(³⁹⁸) Daily Beast (The), Worst attack in 18 months shocks U.S. military, 21 December 2015.

(³⁹⁹) EASO, Country of Origin Information Report. Afghanistan. Security Situation, January 2016, pp. 49-50.

(⁴⁰⁰) International organisation, e-mail, 15 September 2015. The local contact is an international organisation active in the province. The organisation wished to remain anonymous for security reasons.

(⁴⁰¹) International organisation, e-mail, 15 September 2015. The local contact is an international organisation active in the province. The organisation wished to remain anonymous for security reasons.

(⁴⁰²) Pajhwok Afghan News, Insecurity growing in Parwan say dwellers, 20 July 2015.

(⁴⁰³) Tolo News, Attack on former jihadi leaders house sparks protest in Parwan, 29 June 2015.

(⁴⁰⁴) Landinfo, Temanotat Afghanistan Sikkerhetsoppdatering, 9 January 2014, p. 20.

(⁴⁰⁵) Ruttig, T., Ghorband – A valley once friendly, 19 July 2011.

(⁴⁰⁶) International organisation, e-mail, 15 September 2015. The local contact is an international organisation active in the province. The organisation wished to remain anonymous for security reasons.

In September 2015, an international organisation active in the province reported on IS infiltration and a few activities in parts of Parwan such as Shinwari, Ghorband and Koh-e Safi districts coming from the neighbouring Baghlan Province to Ghorband and Shinwari districts. But they reportedly have met resistance from some local AGEs (⁴⁰⁷). It is estimated that some 300 AGEs are active in the Ghorband valley (⁴⁰⁸).

Recent security trends

From 1 September 2015 to 31 May 216, Parwan Province counted 140 security incidents. The following table provides an overview of the nature of the security incidents (⁴⁰⁹):

Violence targeting individuals 10 Armed confrontations and airstrikes 72

Explosions 25

Security enforcement 25

Non-conflict related incidents 5

Other incidents 3

Total security incidents 140

The following table presents the number of security incidents per district in Parwan Province (⁴¹⁰):

Ghorband (Siagherd) Bagram

Shinwari Charikar Koh-e Safi

43 38 20 16 8

Saydkhel Salang Surkh-e Parsa Shekhali Jabalussaraj

4 4 3 2 2

In September 2015, unknown gunmen attacked a wedding party, killing two people and injuring five. It was suggested that the perpetrators were an illegal armed group (⁴¹¹). A group of illegal armed men together with local residents blocked the highway to Bamyan in Ghorband district in November 2015 in protest of the assignment of a new district police chief (⁴¹²).

In December 2015, the director of the Women’s Affairs Department in Parwan declared a sharp increase in violence against women in the province (⁴¹³).

In Shinwari district in January 2016, in the Ghorband valley, the Taliban seized seven men from their cars while they were travelling to a wedding party and shot them in the hands or legs. According to the district governor, the incident took place in a remote area under Taliban control. Supposedly, the Taliban had targeted them because they refused to take up arms against the government (⁴¹⁴). In February 2016, in Ghorband district, a suicide attacker targeting Afghan security forces detonated an improvised explosive device near the entrance of the district health clinic, according to UNAMA, killing seven civilians and injuring seven others, including three boys (⁴¹⁵). According to the district police chief, who was quoted by Pajhwok Afghan News, nine civilians and four Afghan Local Police (ALP) personnel were killed in this blast and the injured included 17 civilians and one ALP personnel (⁴¹⁶). In another deadly suicide attack in April 2016, eight civilians were killed and more than 30 others wounded by an insurgent riding an

(⁴⁰⁷) International organisation, e-mail, 15 September 2015. The local contact is an international organisation active in the province. The organisation wished to remain anonymous for security reasons.

(⁴⁰⁸) Tolo News, Suicide bomber kills 8 and wounds 34 in Parwan, 5 April 2016.

(⁴⁰⁹) For more information on the source of the data and the methodology, see introduction.

(⁴¹⁰) For more information on the source of the data and the methodology, see introduction.

(⁴¹¹) Pajhwok Afghan News, Attack on Parwan wedding party claims 2 lives, 16 September 2015.

(⁴¹²) Khaama Press, Illegal armed men block Kabul-Bamyan highway in Parwan, 2 November 2015.

(⁴¹³) Pajhwok Afghan News, Sharp rise in violence against women in Parwan, 2 December 2015.

(⁴¹⁴) Pajhwok Afghan News, Taliban shoot and injured 7 civilians in Parwan, 26 January 2016.

(⁴¹⁵) UNAMA, UN calls on all parties to respect health facilities, 23 February 2016.

(⁴¹⁶) Pajhwok Afghan News, 13 killed, 18 injured in Parwan suicide blast, 22 February 2016.

explosives-laden motorcycle. Intending to target the district governor’s building, he detonated his explosives before reaching the target in the bazaar in front of a school. Among the victims were several children and women (⁴¹⁷). Later in April, the Taliban district shadow governor in Ghorband was killed in an ANSF operation (⁴¹⁸).

In Bagram, the main target remains the big international military basis and its personnel. In December 2015, a suicide bomber targeted a joint patrol of IMF and ANSF, killing six US soldiers and injuring three Afghan policemen or one Afghan policeman and two U.S. soldiers, depending on the source (⁴¹⁹). In May 2016, US patrols came under attack twice (⁴²⁰) and the base was targeted with rockets causing the injury of two civilians at the base (⁴²¹). In August 2016, an SVBIED targeted a NATO convoy in Bagram injuring at least three ANP escorting the convoy. The Taliban claimed 12 American soldiers and five ANP were killed (⁴²²).

In January 2016, in two separate incidents, rockets were fired at a bank in Charikar. While the buildings suffered material damage, no casualties were reported in both incidents (⁴²³).

The stretch of the road running through Ghorband is declared a ‘Taliban control zone’ and a ‘low confidence ISIS support zone’ connects this area with Baghlan and Kapisa, according to ISW as of June 2016 (⁴²⁴). ‘Taliban control- and support-zones’ from neighbouring Tagab in Kapisa are also stretching out into Koh-e Safi district (⁴²⁵).

Displacement

UNHCR stated in October 2015: ‘As one of the relatively stable provinces in the Central region, in early October also Parwan Province received IDPs from Kunduz city’. In October 2015, 223 families or 1,556 individuals were assessed as genuine conflict IDPs (⁴²⁶).

In an overview of 2015, Parwan is only mentioned as one of the neighbouring provinces of Kabul, from which conflict-induced IDPs came at a ‘steady pace’ (⁴²⁷).

UNHCR does not mention any displacement in or from Parwan Province in the first four months of 2016 (⁴²⁸).

(⁴¹⁷) Pajhwok Afghan News, Least 7 dead, 25 wounded in Parwan suicide attack, 5 April 2016; Khaama Press, Casualties feared as suicide blast rocks Parwan province, 5 April 2016; Tolo News, Suicide bomber kills 8 and wounds 34 in Parwan, 6 April 2016.

(⁴¹⁸) Khaama Press, Top Taliban leader killed in a special military operation in north of Afghanistan, 24 April 2016.

(⁴¹⁹) Pajhwok Afghan News, 6 American soldiers killed in Bagram suicide bombing, 21 December 2015; Daily Beast (The), Worst attack in 18 months shocks U.S.

military, 21 December 2015.

(⁴²⁰) Pajhwok Afghan News, Foreign troops come under bomb attack in Bagram, 3 May 2016; Pajhwok Afghan News, No casualties as IED hits NATO convoy in Parwan, 21 May 2016.

(⁴²¹) Pajhwok Afghan News, 2 wounded in rocket strike on Bagram airfield, police chief, 6 May 2016.

(⁴²²) Pajhwok Afghan News, 3 police injured in car bomb attack, 22 August 2016.

(⁴²³) Pajhwok Afghan News, Rocket hits microfinance bank in Charikar, no casualties, 16 January 2016; Pajhwok Afghan News, Rocket hits Finca bank building in Parwan, 25 January 2016.

(⁴²⁴) ISW, Afghanistan partial threat assessment as of June 30, 2016, 14 July 2016.

(⁴²⁵) ISW, Afghanistan partial threat assessment as of June 30, 2016, 14 July 2016.

(⁴²⁶) UNHCR, Afghanistan: Conflict-Induced Internal Displacement Monthly Update, October 2015.

(⁴²⁷) UNHCR, Conflict-induced Internal Displacement in 2015: the Year in Review, 28 April 2016, p. 9.

(⁴²⁸) UNOCHA, AFGHANISTAN: Conflict Induced Displacements - Snapshot (1 January - 31 April 2016), 16 May 2016.