Afghans in a terrible predicament

|
  • 0

Afghans in a terrible predicament

Sunday, 21 August 2022 | Makhan Saikia

Afghans in a terrible predicament

The Taliban snatched power from the West-backed Ashraf Ghani in Afghanistan in August last year after two decades of their ouster by the US troops. The Islamist group ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001 under the leadership of Mullah Omar, but were thrown out from Kabul in 2001 when the US launched an onslaught to avenge 9/11 terror attacks and to smoke out al-Qaeda terrorists, including Osama Bin Laden, holed up in the country.

Decimated by the mighty US Army, the rag-tag Taliban took shelter in the mountains and countryside to regroup over years during the US occupation, adopting guerrilla warfare. And, finally, the radicals tactfully occupied power by mobilising both physical and diplomatic support with years of back-room negotiations with the Americans in Qatar.

And then on August 15, 2020, the mullahs succeeded in usurping power from the US-backed legitimate government of President Ghani, who ruled the country from September 2014 till August 2021.

Fearing for life and meeting the same fate as that of Mohammad Najibullah Ahmadzai (former president of Afghanistan who the Taliban executed after seizing power in 1996 for the first time), Ghani left the war-torn country, leaving behind embattled soldiers and residents at the mercy of the Taliban.

Though no massive protest rally came out in Kabul, the fear among residents, mostly those who had sided with the Americans, was such that there was a mad rush to leave the country for safety. There was chaos at the Kabul airport on August 16 and some seven people, including some who fell from a departing American military transport jet, died.

Thousands succeeded in leaving the country thinking that they might have to face the Taliban’s extreme brutality. However, many Afghans chose to stay on as they never wanted to leave their motherland and also, they were used to such heinous treatments at the hands of the Taliban in the past.

As the chaos was unfolding in Afghanistan, the US under Joe Biden simply dumped the democratically elected Ghani Government without showing any commitment for the future of Afghanistan. Shockingly, Washington has never realised that it has handed over the baton to those monsters against whom it fought the so-called “War on Global Terrorism” (GWOT). In fact, America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan was planned during the administration of President Barack Obama.

The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan is a grim signal for a country that may not return to democracy very easily in the near future. The Taliban is predominantly a Pashtun Islamic fundamentalist group, operating mainly in Afghanistan. It was formed in 1994 as a resistance force against the invading Soviet forces in the 1980s.

In their heyday of the movement, the Taliban promised to impose stability and rule of law after four years of conflict (1992-96) among rival Mujahideen groups. It was in November 1994 when the Taliban entered Kandahar to pacify the crime-ridden southern city, and by September 1996 they seized the capital, Kabul, from President Burhanuddin Rabbani, an ethnic Tajik whom they viewed as anti-Pashtun and corrupt.

The Taliban wanted to impose their interpretation of repressive Islamic rule. They banned television, imposing ultra-strict rules governing the conduct of women. These measures soon made them an international pariah. Their act of destroying the 1,500 years of Buddha statues in Bamiyan province further isolated them. And sheltering the masterminds of 9/11 terror attacks proved to be the last nail in their coffin as the US destroyed the Taliban.

However, the Taliban regrouped and collected enough strength to make a comeback. And hence the group’s swift move came as the US planned for the final withdrawal of troops as per the peace deal signed in 2020. Although the Afghan Government forces were well-funded and well-equipped, they could not put up enough resistance when the Taliban seized power. Also, the US officials openly admitted that they miscalculated the speed at which the Islamists grabbed power.

A year after the Taliban takeover, what the international community can witness is nothing but chaos. Some of the areas that draw global attention are worth mentioning here.

First of all, the Taliban have broken multiple global conventions to respect women’s rights and human rights. They are hell bent on destroying the fundamentals of universal human rights accepted by civil society. The mullahs in power have imposed the most severe restrictions over women rights and media freedom. Protest against Taliban rule results in certain death.

Second, unlawful killing has increased manifold. There is absolutely no control over such brutalities and anarchy. In fact, the Taliban are simply concentrating on holding Kabul and managing to survive. So they can hardly afford any time and resources for controlling mafias across the country.

Third, the country is in the grip of the worst economic downturn with stories like people forced to sell their children to earn the means to stay alive.

However, this economic breakdown has not started right now. For a long time, the country has been suffering an economic crisis as it could not properly utilise its massive natural resources.

Fourth, large scale deaths are taking place because of a severe food crisis in the country. Barely two per cent of the Afghan people have enough food to survive their daily lives.

Fifth, the Taliban have barred girls from attending educational institutions. It displays their extremely patriarchal mindset that denies girls basic right to livelihood.

Sixth, the Taliban have refused to get engaged with international human rights and financial institutions. The foreign governments should ease restrictions on the country’s financial organisations specially the banks so as to facilitate development initiatives and daily needs of the people. But at the same time, the international actors also must press the mullahs to allow basic rights and punish those responsible for abuses.

Seventh, finally, the Taliban will not be able to move away from their terror tag though they are working hard to do so. Recently, al-Qaeda chief Aiman-al-Zawahiri was killed by the US drone attack in Kabul itself. It clearly shows how the Taliban are covertly sheltering the terror heads so as to keep their hardcore cadre intact and also to spread the terror networks as far as possible.

Biden’s quick exit from Afghanistan had an international impact as well. This withdrawal is a total collapse of the GWOT once launched against the Islamic radicals. However, today’s global power equations are entirely different from that of the 1970s. The allies of Washington in this GWOT in Afghanistan went clueless as the US took its decision to withdraw from the war theatre.

Many of the British ministers came out openly against Biden’s move in Afghanistan. It was very clear how the UK and other European allies of the US were dependent on Washington. In fact, their opinions hardly mattered for Biden when the latter wanted to take a crucial decision.

Definitely, Beijing and Moscow are quite content to see the US leaving a two-decade old war field by creating a power void. But how long the smiles in Beijing, Moscow and lately in Islamabad will continue is a matter of concern.

Simply, the Taliban pose an immediate threat not only to the Afghan people but also for the entire central Asian region. Their coming to power has fuelled the ambitions and offensives of other Islamic jihadists like al-Qaeda, Islamic State and especially, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), mainly operating in the Afghan-Pakistan border areas.

There is a vast difference between the Taliban 1.0 and 2.0. Earlier, it was out and out a jihadist outfit. Today it has transformed itself into an organisation that can equally run diplomacy and terror together. They have learnt their lessons in the last two decades of their fighting with the US-led forces.

For sure, Kabul will soon turn into a war zone. If the Taliban deny the fundamental rights to its people and go on abusing the same, the international actors could snap ties with them, accompanied by suspension of financial aid.

This could be catastrophic for a country that barely has anything to survive. Again, it is a big challenge for the Taliban to maintain cohesion among its own military ranks. Conventional wisdom is that it’s really difficult for such terror groups to sustain for long in public governance. Therefore, the future of Afghanistan, known as the graveyard of empires, hinges more on whether the Taliban rule the country as a unified force and less on the reactions of external powers like the US.

It’s an uphill task for the Taliban to keep the pace and peace in a country full of problems and with ISIS splinter groups fanned out in villages trying to come into power using the same guerrilla tactics which the Taliban used to topple  the US-led Ghani Government.

 

(Dr Makhan Saikia has taught political science and international relations for over a decade in institutions of national and international repute after specialisation in globalisation and governance from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. He is the chief editor of the Journal of Global Studies, an international research journal)

Sunday Edition

CAA PASSPORT TO FREEDOM

24 March 2024 | Kumar Chellappan | Agenda

CHENNAI EXPRESS IN GURUGRAM

24 March 2024 | Pawan Soni | Agenda

The Way of Bengal

24 March 2024 | Shobori Ganguli | Agenda

The Pizza Philosopher

24 March 2024 | Shobori Ganguli | Agenda

Astroturf | Lord Shiva calls for all-inclusiveness

24 March 2024 | Bharat Bhushan Padmadeo | Agenda

Interconnected narrative l Forest conservation l Agriculture l Food security

24 March 2024 | BKP Sinha/ Arvind K jha | Agenda