I had planned to write this week about the celebration of India’s Independence Day in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh last month. I have received many beautiful pictures of the hoisting of the Indian Tricolour in this beautiful part of India. Friends based in parts of Kashmir, have shared reports of the celebrations around them. However, I put aside reports of our celebrations as the dramatic developments in Afghanistan needed immediate comment.
The entry of Taliban forces into Kabul, followed by the frenzied evacuations took over our thoughts this Independence Day. At press conferences following the Taliban’s entry into Kabul, the Taliban projected a changed image. Their spokesmen tried to distance this Taliban from the inherited legacy of brute force against civilians and the savage oppression of women and ethnic minorities which had characterised the earlier regime of the Taliban. Instead, Taliban representatives emphasised their concern for the safety and security of all Afghans.
Taliban’s statements about the intent to provide good governance generated considerable scepticism. Notwithstanding the public pronouncements, most people preferred to judge the Taliban by their actions. An interesting observation referred to the difference between moderation and restraint/ pragmatism shown by the Taliban. There is no doubt that Taliban’s pronouncements on its apparently changed approach do not indicate a moderation of its medieval ideology.
Taliban recently put out a statement claiming to have "completely captured" the Panjshir Valley. This claim was disputed by the resistance forces in Panjshir. Around this time, the Indian media widely reported claims that the Panjshir province was bombed by Pakistan Air Force drones. The claim was made by former Afghan MP Zia Arianjad. Fahim Dashty, the spokesperson of the Resistance Force, was reported to be killed during fighting with the Taliban in Panjshir, as confirmed by the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan in a statement on Facebook.
Panjshir Valley had proved to be a thorn in the Taliban's side in the first takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban; it had remained unconquered. With resistance emerging yet again in Panjshir, Pakistan seems to have given up the pretence of ‘behind the scenes support’ and appears to have helped the Taliban fight the Resistance. In this endeavour, Pakistan Air Force reportedly used drones to drop bombs on Panjshir. Pakistan’s special forces were also claimed to be assisting the Taliban in capturing the defiant province. With the chief of Pakistan’s spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Lt Gen Faiz Hameed arriving in Kabul amid infighting in the Taliban ranks over the issue of government formation, the fig leaf covering Pakistan’s naked aggression in Afghanistan, seems to have finally dropped.
Simultaneously, former Vice President, Amarullah Saleh, wrote to the UN warning of a serious humanitarian crisis, as he alleged that the Taliban had blocked relief supplies, including medicines to the valley, cut off phones and electricity, and were using young Panjshir civilians as mine-clearing tools.
In an official statement, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said that the blockade of the Panjshir Valley contravenes international law as well as humanitarian law. Condemning the attack on Panjshir in the strongest possible terms, the Iranian spokesman said that “starving” the people of Panjshir and “cutting their water and electricity is a cause of concern and regret”. The statement asked the Taliban to abide by international law.
In a tweet, noted journalist Shekhar Gupta, described Pakistan’s involvement in Afghanistan as Rawalpindi based Pak GHQ’s third coming of its ‘we the colonial power’ fantasy. The first resulted in the loss of half of Pakistan in 1971, while the second one ruined the economy and won for Pakistan the tags of ‘global migraine’ and ‘University of Jehad’. The results of the third coming are yet to be seen.
Pakistanis on social media have made no attempt to hide their jubilation at the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. The distressing images and reports emerging from there, have shamelessly been abandoned in this momentary triumph.
This jubilation can perhaps be seen as the machismo of a country and people who have been at the receiving end of global criticism, unable to raise its head high due to the disastrous economy and utter dependence on loans from its ‘all-weather friend’. Right thinking Pakistanis should be wondering if Pakistan has not bitten off more than it can chew! A country unable to manage its own economy successfully will henceforth have to bear the burden of the poverty-stricken nation of Afghanistan, run by an inexperienced and medieval Taliban. The drain on Pakistan will not just be economic. Any remaining vestige of liberalism will be driven out of the country by the ultra-conservative religious fundamentalism that will flow in from a Taliban controlled Afghanistan into Pakistan while giving a filip to organisations like the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.
The triumphant arrival of Pakistan supported Taliban in Kabul seriously begets the question, is it victory or its biggest folly yet.
