21 May 2013

The Afghan government should take urgent steps to halt an alarming increase in women and girls imprisoned for “moral crimes,” Human Rights Watch said today.  Commitments by senior government officials to end such abuses have had little practical impact.

Statistics from Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry indicate that the number of women and girls imprisoned for “moral crimes” in Afghanistan had risen to about 600 in May 2013 from 400 in October 2011 – a 50 percent increase in a year and a half. Since October 2011, there has been an almost 30 percent increase overall in the number of women and girls imprisoned in Afghanistan’s prisons and juvenile detention facilities.

“Four years after the adoption of a law on violence against women and twelve years after Taliban rule, women are still imprisoned for being victims of forced marriage, domestic violence, and rape,” saidBrad Adams, Asia director. “The Afghan government needs to get tough on abusers of women, and stop blaming women who are crime victims.”

In a March 2012 report, “‘I Had to Run Away’: The Imprisonment of Women and Girls for ‘Moral Crimes’ in Afghanistan,” Human Rights Watch documented that some 95 percent of girls and 50 percent of women imprisoned in Afghanistan were accused of the “moral crimes” of “running away” from home or zina (sex outside of marriage).

These “moral crimes” usually involve flight from unlawful forced marriages or domestic violence. Women and girls imprisoned on “moral crimes” charges who were interviewed by Human Rights Watch described abuses including forced and underage marriage below age 16, beatings, stabbings, burnings, rapes, forced prostitution, kidnapping, and threats of “honor killing.” Virtually none of the cases had led even to an investigation of the abuse, let alone prosecution or punishment.

“Running away,” or fleeing home without permission, is not a crime under the Afghan criminal code, but the Afghan Supreme Court has instructed its judges to treat women and girls who flee as criminals.Zina is a crime under Afghan law, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Some women and girls have been convicted of zina after being raped or forced into prostitution. Prosecution of women who are survivors of gender-based violence has continued, and many abusers of women have continued to go free in spite of Afghanistan’s 2009 Law on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW Law), which created new criminal penalties for abuse of women.

While several high-level Afghan government officials, including from the police and Justice Ministry, have in the past year publicly confirmed that “running away” is not a crime under Afghan law, such statements have yet to translate into policy, Human Rights Watch said. Some legal experts have suggested that a growing view that women and girls should not be charged with “running away” has merely resulted in a shift toward charging them with attempted zina. A charge of attempted zinaunjustifiably assumes that women outside of the supervision of their male relatives must have attempted to have sex.

Women and girls accused of “moral crimes” are routinely subjected to “virginity tests” that courts rely on for the purpose of determining virginity and whether a woman or girl engaged in recent sexual intercourse. These exams can be ordered by any police official, and some women are subjected to multiple vaginal exams without informed consent for no justifiable reason. Use of such examinations is not limited to rape cases, and examinations do not focus on documenting medical injuries or collecting physical evidence to support an allegation of sexual assault. Although medical examinations can be a legitimate form of investigation in cases of alleged sexual assault, gynecological exams that purport to determine “virginity” have no medical accuracy. Use of such tests constitutes cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment under international law.

“Coerced ‘virginity’ examinations are a form of sexual assault,” Adams said. “Afghan police, without any scientific basis, are routinely forcing these unspeakable examinations on women and girls.”

Some women and girls who flee violence at home are able to access help – rather than being arrested – through shelters. The number of women’s shelters in Afghanistan has increased from 14 in 2011 to 18 in 2013. However, the capacity of the shelters is far too limited for the number of women who require assistance, and fewer than half of the country’s 34 provinces have even a single shelter. There are no shelters in the more conservative southern half of the country.

These shelters may not be sustainable as they are entirely funded by international donors, and donor assistance is dropping rapidly as the 2014 deadline for the withdrawal of international combat forces from Afghanistan approaches. The Afghan government has shown no interest in funding shelters through the government budget and has at times taken actions detrimental to the shelters, including a 2011 effort to take over the shelters and 2012 statements by the justice minister accusing shelters of “moral corruption.”

“Afghanistan’s donors have a crucial role to play in supporting shelters that are literally life-saving for many women,” Adams said. “They should not only help ensure the survival of the shelters that exist, but support expansion of the shelter system including in southern Afghanistan.”
Human Rights Watch called on the Afghan government and its international partners to take the following urgent steps:

• President Hamid Karzai should issue an administrative decree that “running away” should not be treated as a crime under Afghan law and that charges of attempted zina should not be brought. He should exonerate or pardon everyone convicted for “running away;”

• The Ministry of Interior should instruct all police of their obligation to convey immediately information pertaining to all incidents of violence against women or possible crimes under the EVAW Law to the prosecutor;

• The Attorney General should issue instructions requiring prosecutors to formally investigate all allegations of crimes against women under the EVAW Law and other laws, bring charges as the evidence warrants, and fully investigate whether women accused of crimes were acting in response to abuse; and

• International donors should make implementation of the EVAW Law, abolition of the crime of “running away,” revisions to the zina and family laws, and reforms to other laws that discriminate against women key issues in political engagement with the Afghan government.

“Moral Crimes” and Women’s Rights in Afghanistan: Recent Developments

The number of women and girls imprisoned for “moral crimes” in Afghanistan has increased by 50 percent in the period from October 2011 to May 2013. This troubling increase has occurred during a period in which there have been some new efforts by the Afghan government to protect women. In spite of these efforts, however, there has been a failure to take successful action to end wrongful imprisonment of women.

The Afghan government and its international partners have made some progress in addressing wrongful imprisonment of women and girls for “moral crimes” since 2012. Key officials have spoken out, at least on the illegality of “running away” prosecutions. Specialized units within the Attorney General’s Office have made some progress in increasing enforcement of the Law on Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW Law). There has been a small increase in the number of shelters for women fleeing violence, and there seems to be a growing awareness by police that many cases should be referred to family court for resolution through marriage or divorce rather than being sent to prosecutors. Some women’s rights activists report that the government, from President Hamid Karzai to the level of individual police and prosecutors, has shown increased openness to hearing concerns about violence against women and working with activists, including in individual cases.

Less encouraging, however, is the continued abusive use of coerced gynecological examinations, and a lack of progress in the recruitment of female police officers. Family court, where women can seek a divorce and custody of their children, exists only in Kabul. Even the slightly expanded number of shelters is nowhere near adequate to meet the need and women in the majority of provinces and the entire southern half of the country have no access to shelters. As long as the number of women and girls imprisoned for “moral crimes” continues to increase – as it has done by 50 percent in the last year and a half – it is clear that the Afghan government needs to do much more to end abusive prosecutions of women and girls.

Below is a timeline of major “moral crimes”– related developments since March 2012:

• April 11, 2012: The Attorney Generals’ Office issued a directive stating that “running away” is not a crime under Afghan law and should not be prosecuted:

A circulation must be prepared and shared with all relevant prosecution offices in the center and provinces and the prosecutors should be instructed not to prepare unjustifiable case files regarding running away cases that have not been criminalized under Afghanistan laws and cannot be heard by courts and refrain from conducting baseless investigations. Other circumstances where people run away to commit any other crime are not covered by this instruction. The issue is being communicated to you so that you can take action in accordance with instruction of the High Council of Attorney General Office of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

• September 16, 2012: Justice Minister Habibullah Ghalib, Women’s Affairs Minister Husn Banu Ghazanfar, and Deputy Interior Minister Mirza Mohammad Yarmand each strongly condemned wrongful imprisonment of women and girls on charges of “running away.” Ghalib said that police and prosecutors should never send cases of “running away” to the courts. Yarmand pledged his commitment to ending abuses by the police, saying that all police had been instructed that running away is not a crime. Ghazanfar said that women and girls accused of running away are not criminals, but generally crime victims who flee to escape violence committed against them.

• September 16, 2012: Fawzia Koofi, director of the lower house parliamentary committee on women’s affairs, and her counterpart, Siddiqa Balkhi, the director of the upper house parliamentary committee on women’s affairs, called for the government to immediately free women and girls charged with running away under Afghanistan’s ambiguous and arbitrary “moral crimes” law.

• October 2012: Criminal charges of “disrespect of police” are brought against Batool Muradi, after she becomes the first Afghan woman to challenge accusations by her husband of “infidelity” through DNA testing of their children.

• Late 2012: The Attorney General announced plans to establish specialized units responsible for bringing prosecutions under the EVAW Law in all of the country’s 34 provinces from the current 8. While the number of cases brought under the EVAW law remains very low even in provinces with these specialized units, activists consider the specialized units, funded by international donors, to be a step in the right direction.

• February 2013: Gulnaz, a young woman released by presidential pardon in December 2011 after serving two and a half years of a 12-year sentence for zina after she was raped, married her rapist. Her case, which received wide coverage in the international and Afghan media, highlighted not only the frequency with which rape victims are imprisoned for “moral crimes” in Afghanistan, but also the lack of options for such women following release. Gulnaz spent over a year in a women’s shelter before social and family pressures led her to marry the man who raped her as the best available option for her and the daughter she gave birth to in prison as a result of the rape.

• May 2013: A parliamentary proposal to amend the EVAW Law risks limiting further the ability of women to flee violence or seek prosecution of their abusers.

Insufficient recruitment of female police officers

Female police officers have a crucial role to play in enforcing Afghanistan’s EVAW Law. In Afghanistan’s deeply gender segregated society, many women have difficulty even leaving their homes, and would find it impossible to report a crime, especially one involving sensitive issues of sexual assault or domestic violence, to a male police officer. In the absence of female officers, reporting crimes may even be unsafe: one woman told Human Rights Watch that when she went to a police station to report being raped, she was raped again by an officer in the station.

The percentage of women in the Afghan police has remained at about 1 percent over the last few years. A Human Rights Watch statement highlighted some of the challenges that make it difficult to recruit and retain women in the police force, including abuse and sometimes assault by male colleague in the police and a lack of the most basic toilet and changing room facilities. In spite of multiple reports of incidents of sexual harassment and rape of female police officers by male police officers, there have been no cases of successful prosecution of male police officers for these abuses and the Ministry of Interior has denied that abuses against women officers are a problem.

Continued abusive use of vaginal examinations

Afghan women accused of “moral crimes” are routinely ordered to undergo gynecological examinations that purport to provide information about whether the woman or girl is a “virgin” and whether she has engaged in recent sexual intercourse. This practice continues despite the fact that gynecological examinations that purport to determine virginity have no medical validity, and constitute cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment under international human rights law. A modified gynecological examination that is rid of so-called virginity tests can be legitimately used for therapeutic purposes and evidence collection in rape cases, but should not be used otherwise, and should never be used without the informed consent of the woman or girl.

A senior police official told Human Rights Watch in May 2013 that these examinations can be ordered by any local police officer –“whoever sees the case first.” Another senior government official said that women are often without any justification subjected to multiple examinations. Human Rights Watch found that senior Afghan government officials seem unprepared to accept that there is no scientific validity to these examinations.

Desperate need for more shelters

In 2001, Afghanistan had no shelters for women and girls fleeing violence. The 18 shelters that exist today have demonstrated that they provide an option for women that not only can keep them from being wrongfully imprisoned, but can also literally save their lives in the many cases where “honor killing” is threatened. The success of existing shelters should lead to creation of new shelters sufficient to ensure that women in every province have access to a shelter. Unfortunately, the total dependency of these shelters on international donors, combined with the often unsupportive attitude of the Afghan government toward shelters, creates real uncertainty about the long–term sustainability of shelters. The overall decline in donor support to Afghanistan reduces the likelihood that there will be any major expansion of urgently needed shelter services.

19 April 2013

Summary

9th April 2013

Two men have today lost their battle to prove that the United Kingdom authorities’ plan to return them to Afghanistan would breach human rights law.

In its judgment in the case of H. and B. v. the United Kingdom (applications nos. 70073/10 and 44539/11), which is not final, the European Court of Human Rights held by six votes to one that there would be:

no violation of Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment) of the European Convention on Human Rights if either Mr H. or Mr B., failed asylum seekers, were removed to Afghanistan.

The case concerned two Afghan nationals’ allegation that, if removed to their country of origin, they would be at risk of ill-treatment from the Taliban in reprisal for their past work for the United Nations as a driver and the United States forces as an interpreter, respectively.

The court found that the two men, if removed to Afghanistan, would not be at risk as a result of the general situation in the country. Furthermore, they had failed to provide evidence to prove that their personal circumstances would expose them to a real risk of inhuman or degrading treatment if removed. Notably, their work for the international community had not been high profile and there was nothing to prove that the Taliban had the motivation or ability to pursue low level collaborators in Kabul, an area outside of Taliban control.

ECtHR Press Release

RefWorld

25th March 2013

As international troops prepare to leave Afghanistan by 2014, more than half a million Afghans are estimated to be internally displaced. The on-going transfer of security responsibility from NATO to Afghan security forces has not been accompanied by a transition to stability. In 2012, internal displacement continued to rise significantly against a backdrop of continuing armed conflict, high civilian casualties, increased abuses by non-state armed groups and pervasive conflict-related violence. Over 100,000 Afghans were newly displaced by conflict and a further 32,000 by natural disasters in 2012. There are numerous challenges in accurately profiling the displaced.

The actual number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) is undoubtedly far higher.  National and international responses have been largely inadequate. IDPs face a wide range of physical threats and restrictions to their freedom of movement. They often live in life-threatening conditions, without access to sufficient food and water, adequate housing, security of tenure or employment. Increasing numbers seek relative safety in cities and towns where they face discrimination and are even more deprived and marginalised than the non-displaced urban poor. Over three quarters of IDPs now wish to settle permanently where they are. This right is not recognised by the government, which continues to link assistance and solutions for IDPs to return to their place of origin. Under these circumstances, and without adequate international assistance, growing numbers of Afghans risk prolonged displacement in dire conditions.

Contents:

• Background to displacement
  
• Displacement ?gures
• Patterns of displacement
• Protection concerns
• Durable solutions
• National response
• International response
• About the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre

Full Report

12 March 2013

A group of 30 Afghan MPs has written to the Federal Government urging it to abandon plans to return asylum seekers to Kabul.

The ABC has obtained a copy of the letter, which says the security situation in the Afghan capital is getting worse and attackers are targeting members of the Hazara ethnic group.

Kabul MP Mohammed Ibhrahim Qasemi says the Afghan government would not be able to protect returnees from persecution as it already struggles to provide security and basic services to existing residents.

“We already have too much problem here,” he said. “If they came here, we cannot help them.

“Can they guarantee the security for them? No. They can provide the food for them? No.

“They can provide the place for them? No. So I don’t know how they do that.”

Two years ago Australia and Afghanistan signed a memorandum of understanding on the involuntary return of asylum seekers.

And the MPs have expressed their appreciation to the Australian Government for taking care of so many refugees and contributing to the security and development in Afghanistan.

But they believe sending Hazaras to Kabul would be a mistake.

Sonia Caton, a lawyer and the chair of the Refugee Council of Australia, says a test case is yet to be resolved in the Federal Court, and advises the Government to follow the lead of other countries, and wait.

“It’s interesting that Canada has had in place a moratorium on the return of failed asylum seekers to Afghanistan, in recognition of the pretty precarious security situation in that country,” she said.

The latest letter from Afghan MPs raises concerns about 125 failed Afghan asylum seekers.

Most of the parliamentarians who signed it are ethnic Hazaras, but it also includes MPs from other ethnic groups, something Ms Caton says in important.

“The fact that MPs from other ethnicities are also signing this letter is remarkable,” she said.

Some of the asylum seekers who could be returned to Afghanistan have spent extended periods in detention in Australia though their applications for asylum have failed.

Hasan Ghulam from the Australian Hazara Federation says the asylum process is flawed.

“These people they have collected, they are asylum seekers but the system was not really fair,” he said.

PM has contacted the office of Immigration Minister Brendan O’Connor and Opposition spokesman Scott Morrison. Both are yet to respond.

Freedom house

Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai’s decision to endorse a document enforcing a “code of conduct” that limits women’s freedoms is a grave setback for women in Afghanistan. This decision, which comes a day before International Women’s Day on March 8, represents a serious threat to the advancements women have achieved in the country since the fall of the Taliban. Freedom House condemns this egregious affront to women’s rights and calls on Karzai to adhere to previous pledges and respect the constitution, which grants women equal status to men. The code of conduct strictly adheres to Sharia Law and would give men the right to beat women, require women to be accompanied by a male guardian when traveling, and under certain circumstances promote the segregation of men and women. President Karzai issued his endorsement upon the insistence of clerics from the influential Ulema Council.

Afghanistan is rated “Not Free” in the Freedom in the World 2011. The predominantly Muslim state has been plagued with election fraud, corruption, and rampant instability. During the Taliban’s reign, women were prohibited from attending school, leaving home without a male escort, and forced to wear burqas. Since 2001, the country has seen vast improvements for women’s rights. Women were granted equal rights under the constitution, given the chance pursue education, and allocated 68 seats in the lower house of the General Assembly.

Published 31 January 2013

Available at Human Rights Watch

Introduction

Afghans feel enormous anxiety as the 2014 deadline for withdrawing international combat forces from Afghanistan looms, and powerbrokers jockey for position.

The Afghan government’s failure to respond effectively to violence against women undermines the already-perilous state of women’s rights. President Hamid Karzai’s endorsement in March of a statement by a national religious council calling women “secondary,” prohibiting violence against women only for “un-Islamic” reasons, and calling for segregating women and girls in education, employment, and in public, raises questions about the government’s commitment to protecting women. The minister of justice’s description of battered women shelters as sites of “immorality and prostitution” deepens that skepticism.

Government efforts to stifle free speech through new legislation and targeting individual journalists were a worrying new development in 2012, while a crackdown on a political party that advocates prosecuting warlords provided a troubling indication of the government’s approach to the rights to freedom of association and expression of political parties ahead of the 2014 presidential election.

Civilian casualties from the civil armed conflict remained alarmingly high, and re-vetting of the Afghan Local Police (ALP) was underway due to abuses by these forces. Rising numbers of “green on blue” attacks where members of the Afghan security forces target foreign soldiers prompted joint operations with foreign troops to be curtailed during the year.

Taliban laws-of-war violations against civilians continued, particularly indiscriminate attacks causing high civilian losses. Following the end of the United States military “surge,” many areas of Afghanistan remained under Taliban control, where Taliban abuses, particularly against women and girls, were endemic.

Read full report

29 January 2013

The bitter cold of the Afghan winter is killing an increasing number of people, especially children, in urban slums where internally displaced Afghans struggle to survive, aid agencies said on Tuesday.

Human rights group Amnesty International said its research showed at least 11 children and six adults had died in the last month as a result of the cold weather, though there are no official figures.

“We have repeatedly called on the government and the humanitarian community to prepare better for the winter, but the response has been patchy and ad hoc,” said Maya Pastakia, Amnesty’s Afghanistan campaigner. “It’s too little, too late.”

Aid agency officials said the food, blankets and firewood aid groups were handing out were just ‘a band aid’ and the government should give higher priority to providing permanent settlements for displaced people.

Attacks by militants, and air strikes and operations by international and Afghan forces, have uprooted more than half a million people from their homes over the past decade, forcing them to seek refuge in slums in the capital, Kabul, and other cities such as Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif, where they are exposed to disease, hunger and poverty.

Scores of illegal settlements have sprung up, largely ignored by the authorities, who have no policy on dealing with the internally displaced and have been unable to resettle them, partly because of the continuing violence in the impoverished country.

RESPONDING ADEQUATELY

U.N. officials in Afghanistan admit there have been a number of deaths among displaced people living in urban slums since winter set in, but say the international aid community has been responding adequately.

“This is not the first time people are suffering. Last year we had a very harsh winter and there was a lot of attention to the fact that lots of displaced people were dying in Kabul’s informal settlements as a consequence of the harsh winter,” Arnhild Spence, deputy head of the U.N. Office of the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs, told AlertNet.

“This year there has been a more focused effort by the humanitarian aid community to prepare for this, so the preparation has been quite successful and focused on the informal settlements.”

Spence said U.N. agencies and other aid groups had been distributing blankets, firewood and food but that was just a “band aid” solution to the wider problem of permanent resettlement for the displaced.

Aid agencies say the squalid slums where families have been living for years have no basic services such as water and sanitation or amenities such as health services or schools. There is little work available, leaving many residents dependent on begging and handouts.

The government has been reluctant to build proper shelters or provide permanent amenities as it fears this would encourage more displaced people to move into these illegal settlements.

The authorities are in the process of drafting a policy on how to deal with displaced Afghans, but aid workers say this should be a priority.

“I think that much more needs to be done to prioritise the internally displaced, they should be given adequate assistance and protection,” said Caroline Howard, Afghanistan analyst at the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.

“After all, they are among the most vulnerable groups in Afghanistan.”

21 January 2013

At least 17 people, including 11 children, have died mostly from the cold in Afghanistan’s displacement settlements in early January, highlighting the desperate and immediate need for improved aid delivery during the bitter cold winter months, Amnesty International said.   According to information Amnesty International has received, the deaths occurred in camps and settlements in Kabul and Herat provinces. Community leaders there criticized the Afghan government and international aid agencies for inconsistent and inadequate levels of assistance.

“These deaths were a preventable tragedy that unfortunately shows the inadequate co-ordination of winter assistance to hundreds of thousands of people living in displacement camps across the country,” said Polly Truscott, Amnesty International’s Deputy Asia-Pacific Director.

“The fact that children and the elderly are among the dead highlights the need to protect those groups that are most vulnerable to the harsh winter conditions. Priority must be given to those most at risk during the winter months, such as children, the elderly, people with disabilities and those needing medical care, including pregnant women.”

The previous 2011/12 winter was unusually cold in Afghanistan, and more than 100 people, mostly children, died in displacement camps as a result of the harsh winter conditions.  Amnesty International and other NGOs have repeatedly made calls to the Afghan government and the international community to avoid a repeat of last year’s tragic deaths, including in an open letter on 19 October 2012, signed by 30 NGOs.   Amnesty International spoke to representatives for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in a settlement in Balkh district in northern Balkh province, from the Maslakh IDP settlement in western Herat province and from several settlements in Kabul. The camps together house thousands of IDPs.

IDP representatives from Balkh province reported that they had not received any kind of aid supplies despite repeated requests to the government and international agencies.   They spoke of extremely harsh cold weather conditions, with heavy snowfall and a lack of both protection from the elements and enough food to eat.  The deaths all occurred in the first two weeks of January – four in Herat and 13 in Kabul.

In Herat, assistance reached refugees returning to Afghanistan from abroad, but aid to those internally displaced was apparently blocked after pressure from the Herat provincial governor’s office. The local authorities there are said to be concerned that offering aid to IDPs will encourage them to stay in camps permanently instead of returning to their home provinces.

“These deaths show the urgent need to protect all IDPs, to improve coordination and assistance, and to identify areas where IDPs find themselves without assistance. Aid has been unevenly distributed across the country, meaning that those displaced in outlying provinces like Balkh and some Herat IDPs are suffering disproportionately,” said Truscott.

Decades of conflict have left Afghanistan with one of the highest internally displaced populations in the world, estimated to be 450,000, according to UNHCR- but the actual number is likely to be much higher.  The Afghan government is working on a much-needed comprehensive policy for IDPs that should recognize their protection and humanitarian needs, but efforts to assist and protect IDPs cannot wait – particularly over the winter.

“There is a desperate need to act now to prevent further deaths this winter. This should include effective coordination between the government and agencies, and the timely provision of emergency winter supplies – like blankets, warm clothes, tarpaulins, clothing, stoves, water, fuel and food,” said Truscott. “Afghanistan and its donor partners should remember that safeguarding lives in these settlements is an obligation under international law.”
For full article visit: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/publisher,AMNESTY,,,50ffdb382,0.html

21 January 2013

Read article (and watch news video)

Militants have attacked the traffic police headquarters in the Afghan capital, Kabul, taking control of the building for several hours.

At least three policemen and five insurgents were killed during the battle to regain control.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which began when a suicide bomb was detonated shortly before dawn.

It is the second such major attack in Kabul in a week.

Last week, the National Directorate of Security, in the city centre, was attacked, and four guards working for the intelligence services were killed.
Hand grenades

Monday’s siege began when two bombs were detonated – one a suicide bomb and the second a car bomb – before armed men stormed the building in the west of the capital.

It took Afghan forces nine hours to dislodge them, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi told the Associated Press.

Kabul police chief Gen Ayoub Salangi told Agence France-Presse that the operation had taken a long time partly because police did not want to damage documents held inside the building.

“It’s over. The last two terrorists are dead and they were not even given the chance to detonate their suicide vests,” he said.

The militants were armed with heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades and tossed hand grenades out of windows of the four-storey building.

During the siege, explosions could be heard across the city and black smoke could be seen rising from the upper floors of the building.

Earlier, Gen Salangi told the BBC that four police and six civilians had been wounded in the attack.

The strategic location of the traffic department – close to several key police units as well as the country’s parliament – suggests it could have been chosen as a launching pad for a more prolonged attack, the BBC’s Bilal Sarwary in Kabul says.

The incident caused traffic gridlock in certain areas of Kabul – where busy intersections are controlled by police rather than traffic lights – as officers were unable to get to work.

Militant groups continue to mount regular attacks in Afghanistan, raising questions as to how the Afghan security forces will cope after international troops leave the country in 2014.

On Monday, Afghans took to Twitter and Facebook to criticise the security services for their inability to prevent such audacious insurgent attacks.