Security after Bamyan Attacks - June 2024
A member of the Taliban in Balkh at the Haji Piyada Mosque tasked with guarding foreign tourists.
Dear Friends of Safarāt,
We haven’t sent a security update for some time and have been inundated with messages from travellers wondering about the wisdom of visiting Afghanistan after the terrible attack on Spanish tourists this May.
When we started our business in 2022 we operated in the same way we had learned to do so in the dangerous years of government rule. We never gave away our plans, used different routes, stayed in different places, travelled in small local cars and ducked in and out of historic sites like treasure hunting thieves.
The situation is now completely different. There are handfuls of tourists every day at the major sites of Afghanistan and this Spring the number was in the dozens. I could predict exactly in which hotels, cafes and shops there are foreigners sitting in most of the major cities of Afghanistan right now – their movements are predictable, the vehicles they drive are easily identifiable, they visit the same shops and same locations etc.
We are as guilty as any anyone else. Over the last 12 months complacency has set in. The margins in the tourism business are poor, competition is high and dozens of Afghan operators have popped up – which meant as we’ve expanded we naturally reduced the number of special measures we were taking. Our guests also don’t want to be rushed in and out of their vehicles like extras in an action film, whilst watching youtubers wondering freely in the streets.
Some members of our community expressed shock that tourists were attacked in Bamyan which is widely regarded as the “safest place in Afghanistan” – but the truth is that even a half-witted attacker could have found a group of foreigners to target in the city. In March I expressed my concern on a public forum that the Afghan tourist industry had become a disaster waiting to happen; there were just too many travelers visiting and many who were utterly unprepared for travelling in the country.
Generally speaking there has been a slight atmospheric change in Afghanistan over the last 12-months and our fear is that the government will start to move to a ‘North Korean’ model of tourism in the country (more below). This reflects a wider trend in the country, as the Taliban have sought to consolidate their rule – we are seeing big clampdowns on the sale of sim cards, travel permissions and vehicle registrations. We interpret this as an indication that the regime are starting to feel threatened by external factors and there are other rumblings in the distance that we are watching carefully.
At this point whether or not the attack was really perpetrated by ISIS-K is moot. The important thing to remember is that Afghanistan is in the midst of a period of recovery after 40 years of conflict, and as always we are never sure if we are simply in the eye of the storm and opposed to on the other side of a bitter winter. We have never avoided pointing out there are still groups and individuals in Afghanistan who might like to hurt or attack foreign groups of tourists.
We still consider Afghanistan generally safe place to travel at the moment, although we will be making some changes to how we work.
As far as our own business is concerned:
We are (with great sadness) reducing the number of itineraries we are running this Summer and probably into the Autumn. Our current bookable itineraries are on the front page of our website.
1. Our expansion into more remote areas of the country is on hold for now until we see how the traditional “fighting season” plays out this year. We are totally avoiding transiting through Kunar and areas to the North of Jalalabad this summer based on specific threat. This means our plans in Nuristan are suspended.
2. Female guests will now be required to wear a long black abaya and dark coloured headscarf whilst they are with our groups. This is no longer optional.
3. Men will be required to wear traditional local clothes – in our experience this is seen as a mark of respect in conservative places. We won’t be allowing our guests to wear pakhols in Kandahar or sport the funny embroidered Turkmen hats that European guests seem so keen to wear. The idea is to stay low profile and inconspicuous –not to dress like a clown.
4. Your local guides will choose who will be able sit in the front seat of our vehicles. The ability of a front seat passenger to pass as local at-a-glance in the front seat at checkpoints is often the difference between being waved through and a lengthy stop. Female members of the group will not be able to sit in the front seat of cars.
5. Our group sizes will reduce from 8 to 6 travelers for Autumn 2024 – costs will increase as a result and prices will increase from Monday 10th June.
6. We are unsure if our program of homestays will be possible for the foreseeable future (see below). Generally we are asking our guests to be considerate and highly flexible to schedule changes based on our local knowledge.
7. We will be introducing a fitness requirement for our travelers joining our Past and Presentitinerary. We will be introducing an easier trip guided by Noory with less driving and with more local flights in the next couple of weeks, starting in late August.
8. The price of our private tours will be reducing to encourage guests to consider this option if you’re a couple or small group. This is the lowest profile way to travel at the moment. Please get in touch if you’d like to explore this option.
It is important to remember that there will always be independent travellers who beat any new restrictions introduced by the Taliban or manage to safely pogo stick their way through the remotest valleys of Nuristan. This doesn’t mean that what they are doing makes sense. As usual it is important to remember our Afghan mantra which we repeat again and again:
“Everything is fine, until it’s not fine.”
As a business we are committed to making sure that we have eyes and ears spread through the NGO world, media contacts, traveller community, through foreign and Afghan government sources in order to gain the best possible idea of what actually is going on.
We will never ever take unnecessary risks with our local drivers, guides or our guests.
We will never ever run a trip we are not confident in terms of the security for financial or other reasons.
If you’d like you have a one-on-one chat about what exactly happened in Afghanistan, then please feel free to get in touch – as usual whataspp (+447458611911) is the best way to reach out.
Onwards
Joe Sheffer