Tag: Afghan under Taliban

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Girls’ education in limbo despite Taliban’s promises

It’s a searing reminder of the state of girls’ education inside an Afghanistan in limbo, with next to no input from the gender suffering most amid the Taliban takeover, said McKay….reports Asian Lite News

Afghanistan’s takeover by the Taliban has been harsher for the women and girls of the war-torn country despite the group’s assurances to protect their rights.

Hollie McKay, an author, writer on wars and foreign policy, writing in Deadline, a US-based entertainment daily, said that the state of girls’ education is in oblivion. Ministry of Education is filled with the Taliban government’s most devout – as evidenced by their long beards and constant twisting of prayer beads, without a single woman inside the bustling halls or walls.

It’s a searing reminder of the state of girls’ education inside an Afghanistan in limbo, with next to no input from the gender suffering most amid the Taliban takeover, said McKay.

While boys of all ages were ordered back to classrooms last month, girls’ education after the sixth grade – including some universities – has been indefinitely put on hold by the Islamic Emirate.

While private schools continue, the vast majority of Afghan girls and women who rely on the public education system are relegated to the home until further notice.

“Amendments will be made based on our new laws. Islamic scholars will make the decisions,” said Abdul Hakeim, chief of staff for the Minister of Education.

“We want an Islamic perspective, and this means separate classes and transport. Once this is sorted out, girls can continue education for a lifetime.”

“We cannot teach our kids music and other things which are not part of our society,” Hakeim said, adding that the Taliban of 2021 will be far more open-minded than the rule that started in the 1990s.

“Now, we have advanced policies and strategies to catch up with the world. Back then, we did not have access to the resources and no capacity for new buildings or schools. Now we have much more power to make the changes.”

McKay said that she heard such justifications on multiple occasions.

Mawlawi Noor Ahmad Saeed, Director of Information and Culture for Kandahar province stressed that “the whole issue is about transport” and that it will “take time” to make sure girls and women have entirely separate transit and infrastructure facilities.

The Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs, Hafiz Habib, insisted that Islam allows “full rights” to women’s education. A leader inside the much-feared Ministry for Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Mohammad Yousuf, echoed that the new government won’t deprive girls of the right to full and proper schooling, reported Deadline.

McKay also recounted her meeting with Imam Mawlawi Hayat Khan, who said that the reason for separation – and why women should cover their whole face except for the eyes – is so that men do not get “too tempted.”

As it stands in Afghanistan, most students do a half-day at regular school and spend the other half intensifying their religious studies in a madrassa.

Meanwhile, the official Taliban spokesperson Bilal Karimi assured that the stoppage is only temporary.

With each passing day, Afghanistan as a whole dips deeper into poverty. With economic assets frozen and little diplomatic recognition from the outside world, the UN estimates that 97 per cent of the 38 million will have plunged into destitution by mid-2022 without urgent action from the outside world, reported Deadline.

And needless to say, it is almost always the women and girls who will suffer the haunting repercussions, said McKay. (ANI)

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Taliban forcibly evicting Hazaras


Many of these evictions have targeted Hazara Shia communities, as well as people associated with the former government, as a form of collective punishment. …reports Sanjeev Sharma

 Taliban officials in several provinces across Afghanistan have forcibly displaced residents partly to distribute land to their own supporters, Human Rights Watch said.

Many of these evictions have targeted Hazara Shia communities, as well as people associated with the former government, as a form of collective punishment.

In early October 2021, the Taliban and associated militias forcibly evicted hundreds of Hazara families from the southern Helmand province and the northern Balkh province.

These followed earlier evictions from Daikundi, Uruzgan, and Kandahar provinces. Since the Taliban came to power in August, they have told many Hazaras and other residents in these five provinces to leave their homes and farms, in many cases with only a few days’ notice and without any opportunity to present their legal claims to the land.

A former United Nations political analyst said that he saw eviction notices telling residents that if they did not comply, they “had no right to complain about the consequences.”

“The Taliban are forcibly evicting Hazaras and others on the basis of ethnicity or political opinion to reward Taliban supporters,” said Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “These evictions, carried out with threats of force and without any legal process, are serious abuses that amount to collective punishment.”

Hazara residents of Mazar-e Sharif’s Qubat al-Islam district in Balkh province said armed men from the local Kushani community were working with local Taliban security forces to force families to leave, and had given them only three days to do so. Taliban officials claimed the evictions were based on a court order, but evicted residents assert that they have owned the land since the 1970s. Disputes over conflicting claims arose out of power struggles in the 1990s.



Residents of Naw Mish district in Helmand province told Human Rights Watch that the Taliban issued a letter to at least 400 families in late September ordering them to leave. Given little time, the families were unable to take their belongings or complete harvesting their crops. One resident said the Taliban detained six men who tried to challenge the order; four remain in custody.

Another resident said that in the early 1990s, local officials distributed large tracts of land among their relatives and supporters, exacerbating tensions between ethnic and tribal communities.

Securing a claim to land depended on who was in power, and those who lost out in earlier decisions have now petitioned the Taliban to support their claims. An activist from Helmand said that the property is being redistributed to Taliban members holding official positions. They “are cannibalizing land and other public goods” and redistributing it to their own forces, he said.

The largest displacement, HRW said have taken place in 15 villages in Daikundi and Uruzgan provinces, where the Taliban evicted at least Hazara residents in September. The families relocated to other districts, leaving their belongings and crops behind. One former resident said that “after the Taliban takeover, we received a letter from the Taliban informing us that we should leave our houses because the lands are in dispute. A few representatives went to the district officials to ask for an investigation but around five of them have been arrested.” Human Rights Watch was unable to determine if they have been released.

The former resident added that the Taliban had established checkpoints on the roads out of the villages and “did not let anyone take even their crops with them.” Following media coverage of the evictions, Taliban officials in Kabul retracted eviction orders for some Daikundi villages, but as of October 20, no residents had returned.

In Kandahar province, the Taliban gave residents of a government-owned residential complex three days to leave. The property had been distributed by the previous government to civil servants.

The Hazaras are a predominantly Shia Muslim ethnic group that was the target of mass killings and other serious human rights violations by Taliban forces in the 1990s. They have faced discrimination and abuse by successive Afghan governments going back over 100 years, HRW said.

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Changing Dynamics In Afghanistan: India Needs To Up The Ante

The ineptitude in the execution of US withdrawal has created untold horrors for the local Afghans and increased security threat in the region, writes Lt Gen Arun Sahni

The dastardly turn of events in Afghanistan was pre-ordained, when the US lost the appetite to stay in Afghanistan, commenced working towards an exit policy and started differentiating between the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Taliban. Its various bilateral, trilateral and multilateral engagements for the future of Afghanistan, covert deals with Pakistan and delegation of greater operational control to the Afghan National Army in the later part of 2019, were all tailored towards an honourable departure.

It would be a fair assessment that the clock started ticking for Afghanistan on February 29, 2020, with the signing of the ‘Peace Agreement’ between Taliban and the US in Doha, Qatar. The curtains finally came down on August 15, 2021, with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fleeing with his entourage in the forenoon and capitulation of Kabul to Taliban, a few hours later. The ineptitude in the execution of US withdrawal has created untold horrors for the local Afghani people and increased the security threat in the region.

Taliban, an organisation on the UN terrorist list, was once again in the driver’s seat in Afghanistan, after 20 years. This banned terrorist organisation not only survived but grew in strength and capabilities in the two decades out of power, with the patronage of the two timing Pakistan. Its intelligence agency, the ISI and military, have been the support anchor for Taliban, right from its inception and founding in the 1980s and then while it was in control of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

Afghan Taliban members patrol at a security checkpoint in Kunduz, northern Afghanistan, on Sept. 15, 2021. (Photo by Ajmal Kakar/Xinhua/IANS)



On commencement of the US ‘Global War on Terrorism’, Pakistan continued to covertly sustain and empower Taliban. It provided safe havens in its frontier areas, adjoining Afghanistan. It extended covert material, cadre and training support to Taliban, for its sinister terrorist attacks on the democratically elected Government in Kabul and its fight against the US led Coalition forces.

The Taliban– ISI nexus was apparent in the manner Islamist in Pakistan, celebrated Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and the announcement of Taliban’s caretaker government, three days after the unannounced and sudden visit of DG ISI to Kabul, in the first week of September 21. The inclusion of top leaders of ISI supported Haqqani Network, in the Taliban government further confirmed this unholy alliance of a State and non-state actor, that now has a State of its own.

Most political analysts have been proven wrong in their assessment, as they had predicted that Taliban 2.0 will be inclusive in its formulation of the caretaker government and the horrors of their first rule, was a bad dream. Yes, the new Government is media savvy and makes the right noises both in visual and social platforms to placate the developed world, but their action against women, violent subjugation of other non-Pashtun communities, retrograde attitude and fundamentalist social baggage, is a repeat of the past.



Taliban’s leadership does not inspire confidence as it comprises former Guantanamo Bay detainees, designated terrorists, and other individuals closely tied to foreign terror groups like Al-Qaeda and the Haqqani Network. At least 14 members of the Taliban’s caretaker government are on the UN Security Council blacklist. These were Taliban leaders who were released from Guantanamo Bay prison by the Obama administration in 2014, in exchange for US Army personnel.

The success of Taliban in Afghanistan, with its foundations anchored on terrorism and fundamentalism, has energised all terrorist organisations, regionally and globally and increased the resolve of ultra conservative terrorist groups like Pakistan’s TTP, for harsher implementation of ‘Sharia’.

All these non-state actors have gained in confidence and their perception reinforced, that they are on the right track, especially those active in India. It needs to be highlighted that terrorists of the banned outfits in India like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM), were fighting alongside the Taliban, against the US led forces in Afghanistan, for the past several years.

The situation in Afghanistan to say the least, is highly unstable and volatile with adverse impact on the neighbouring countries. Violence levels will continue to be high, as not only are there fissures within Taliban, but the presence of other terrorist groups in Afghanistan that supported Taliban in its power struggle like Indian terrorist groups, ETIM, TTP and IS-K. The hostilities between Taliban and IS – K are too deeply entrenched due to sustained hostilities and sectarian differences.

IS-K subscribes to the Jihadi-Salafism ideology and Taliban subscribes to an alternative Hanafi madhhab of Sunni Islam. The two groups also differ over the role of nationalism. IS-K fiercely rejects it, counter to Taliban’s aims of ruling over Afghanistan. So internecine clashes, differences in the ideologies of terrorist groups, will lead to Afghanistan turning into a cradle for terrorism.

Now with no other battleground available, these terrorists/militants will turn their attention to the neighbouring countries. In the case of India, we will see an increase in terrorist infiltration including foreign militants. The LeT, JEM, their clones and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), under the tutelage of the Pakistan establishment, will endeavour to give impetus to the dwindling ‘proxy war’ in the erstwhile State of J&K and increase terrorist related incidents, pan India. We are already witnessing this change in the recent target killings in Kashmir valley and increased frequency of terrorist related incidents in J&K.

The turn of events in Afghanistan will undoubtedly have an adverse impact on India’s security and the Indian intelligence and Security Forces will have to ‘up the ante’, in their functioning. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement on October 12, at the G20 summit, that encapsulates the security concerns of the Region, merits attention. He underlined the need for the international community to ensure that the Afghan territory did not become a source of radicalisation and terrorism, regionally or globally. The Prime Minister emphasised the need to enhance joint fight against the nexus of radicalisation, terrorism and smuggling of drugs and arms in the region. Therefore, the need of the hour is that the international community must increase its effort to bring Afghanistan on a saner path.



(The writer is a retired Indian Army officer who usually writes on security and current affairs; views expressed are his personal)

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New chapter opened in Afghanistan: Taliban FM

The Acting Foreign Minister is part of an Afghan Taliban delegation which carried out a two-day meeting with US officials over the weekend in the Qatari capital….reports Asian Lite News

The Taliban-led government in Afghanistan has “opened a new chapter” in relations with the international community by sending a message of good ties to the world, said Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.

He made the remarks while addressing an event on Monday organised by the Centre for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, TOLO News reported.

“Afghanistan has sent the message of positive relationship with the whole world. We do not want to interfere in any country’s internal affairs, and we expect the same from other countries to not interfere in our internal affairs,” he said.

The Acting Foreign Minister is part of an Afghan Taliban delegation which carried out a two-day meeting with US officials over the weekend in the Qatari capital.

In his address, Muttaqi further said that the full implementation of the US-Taliban 2020 Doha agreement can address any problem between the two countries, adding that the Taliban wants a political system in Afghanistan that can respond to domestic needs.

“What we want in Afghanistan is a political structure as such that responds to our country’s needs and at the same time is able to fulfil its responsibility at the international level,” TOLO News quoted the Minister as saying.

When asked about reforms, women’s education and their right to work, Muttaqi said the world should not put pressure the Taliban and instead, it should cooperate in bringing reforms.

“You should not seek your demands through putting pressure on us. Ask us through cooperation… The previous government had strong international support. Now you are asking for all the reforms in two months.

“Schools for boys and girls were closed before us because of Covivd. When Kabul fell to our hands, all schools were closed already. Schools in provinces were closed already. We have started reopening the schools,” Muttaqi said.

The Minister also claimed that under the new Taliban government, the Covid-19 situation in the country has been controlled “very well”, surprising doctors, TOLO News reported.

In his concluding remarks, Muttaqi said that the Taliban wanted to enter Kabul through negotiations, “but the fact the formerpresident and the security organs fled, Kabul faced the gap of power, there was a vacuum, so we were asked to enter Kabul and ensure the security of the city”.

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Taliban ask NATO to deal through diplomacy

Last week, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg had said that they must stay vigilant in tracking the developments in the troubled country …reports Asian Lite News

The Taliban have said that the time of power displays by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is over and that the bloc now needs to deal with the outfit through diplomacy.

“The NATO Secretary-General, for a while, may feel his pain and talk about their failures, but they should know that the time for attacks is over; it was proven twenty years ago that these actions did not work and should be dealt with through diplomacy,” said Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid, in an interview with Ariana News.

Last week, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg had said that they must stay vigilant in tracking the developments in the troubled country and closely monitor attempts to reconstitute international terrorist groups in Afghanistan.

“That means to hold the Taliban government accountable for their promises on terrorism, … but also to be ready to strike over the horizon, long-distance, and to stay vigilant as NATO allies, to follow and monitor closely any attempt to reconstitute international terrorist groups in Afghanistan aiming at us.”

NATO CHIEF (ANI)

During the interview, Mujahid said the Taliban will never allow the country to be used as a center for proxy wars between world powers. Over the economic crisis in the country, Mujahid stated that talks were being held with other regional countries including Uzbekistan for their support, particularly in trade.

The spokesperson said that a promising deal was reached with Iran last week on exports of fuel and food as well as rail and border security, among other issues. Speaking on the reports of Pakistan’s inference in Afghanistan, the spokesperson said that the outfit does not accept any interventions.

“I have to say 100 per cent that we do not want anyone to interfere, including Pakistan. We are an independent country. We do not accept these interventions. Pakistan is a separate country. We do not want to interfere in their affairs and they cannot interfere (in Afghanistan’s affairs),” Mujahid said.

On women’s rights issues, Mujahid said the interim government will consider giving women the right to education and work but first need to discuss this with Islamic scholars.

“There is a need in society; women also need jobs, for the implementation, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has shared the issue with Islamic Ulema so that the issue can be discussed.”

Since the Taliban’s take over of Afghanistan, there are a handful of nations like China and Pakistan who have shown interest in establishing ties with the outfit. Other members of the international community are adopting a wait and watch policy. (ANI)

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Unicef presses Taliban to resume kids’ vax drives

Several cases of polio and measles were reported in Afghanistan as the vaccination campaign had been affected following Taliban’s takeover in mid-August….reports Asian Lite News

The Unicef has urged the Taliban caretaker government in Afghanistan to resume children’s vaccination amid concerns of the spread of polio and measles in the war-torn country.

“The health system is about to collapse, we have weeks, not months or years. We will have humanitarian catastrophe,” Xinhua news agency quoted Unicef Deputy Executive Director Omar Abdi as saying in a statement on Twitter on Sunday.

Abdi, who recently ended a four-day visit to Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan, stressed the need of children access to basic healthcare, immunisation, nutrition, water and sanitation and child protection services.

In Kabul, Abdi visited the Indira Gandhi Children’s hospital during which he was accompanied by Unicef Regional Director George Laryea-Adjei and the Agency’s Afghanistan Representative Herve Ludovic de Lys.

In the nutrition ward, he met dozens of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition, a life-threatening condition.

According to the Unicef, without immediate action, an estimated 1 million children in Afghanistan are projected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition in 2021 and could die.

Severe outbreaks of measles and acute watery diarrhoea have further exacerbated the situation, putting more children at risk.

In Sunday’s statement, Abdi also called for an immediate resumption of measles and Covid-19 immunisation campaigns to help protect children and communities from vaccine-preventable diseases.

Several cases of polio and measles were reported in Afghanistan as the vaccination campaign had been affected following Taliban’s takeover in mid-August.

Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only countries in the world where polio remains endemic.

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Afghan women hold protest demanding political, social inclusion

During the protest, a former government employee also expressed frustration with the Taliban and said that the government formed by the group will collapse if women are not included in decision making….reports Asian Lite News

Dozens of Afghan women activists on Sunday held protests in Afghanistan demanding political and social inclusion.

These women sought female representation in the caretaker government of the Taliban and said that they will not stop resisting until their role in the new government is clarified, Tolo News reported.

“Today, October 10, is World Women Solidarity Day with Afghan Women. And women from over 100 countries are due to protest in support of Afghan women,” a protester said.

“The Taliban repeatedly say that women have the right to education, work and political inclusion in the government, and they should show it in practice,” another protester said.

The Taliban have been continuously trying to portray a good image in front of the world while promising rights to women and minorities but the on-ground situation in Afghanistan shows that all these are mere words by the Taliban.

During the protest, a former government employee also expressed frustration with the Taliban and said that the government formed by the group will collapse if women are not included in decision making.

As the Taliban took control of Afghanistan once again after 20 years, experts believe that Afghan women are most likely to face an uncertain future under the group’s regime.

Days ago, veteran women’s rights activist Mehbouba Siraj had also urged the international community to fully support Afghan women amid the deteriorating situation in the war-torn nation, reported Pajhwok Afghan News.

No recognition to Taliban from US

The United States would not be formally recognising the Taliban, but would be providing humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, announced Taliban following talks in Qatar, reported international media.

The Doha talks were the first face-to-face meetings between senior representatives of the Taliban and a US delegation since American troops withdrew from Afghanistan in late August. Citing statement, the Taliban said that their discussions “went well.”

The statement said the US agreed to provide humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, while the Taliban also said that they would “facilitate principled movement of foreign nationals”, The Hill reported.

On Saturday (local time), a State Department spokesperson said that one of the US’ key priorities was the “continued safe passage out of Afghanistan of US and other foreign nationals and Afghans to whom we have a special commitment who seek to leave the country.”

According to The Hill, the State Department spokesperson said that “this meeting is not about granting recognition or conferring legitimacy.”

Despite promises from the Taliban that it would not allow for terrorism to fester in the country, the spokesperson’s remarks followed a deadly suicide bombing at a mosque in Afghanistan’s Kunduz that killed over 40 people and injured many others on Friday — an attack that ISIS-K later took responsibility for.

The delegations of the Taliban and the US have held their first meeting in Qatar’s capital Doha, in a bid to turn the “new page on their relationship”. (ANI)

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KABUL FALL: US Senate bill targets Pakistan

Section 202 of the bill directly mentions Pakistan and calls for an “assessment of support by state and non-state actors, including the government of Pakistan, for the Taliban between 2001 and 2020.” ..reports Asian Lite News

A bill moved in the US Senate seeking to assess Pakistans alleged role in Afghanistan before and after the fall of Kabul to Afghan Taliban set alarm bells ringing in the upper house of Pakistan parliament, Dawn reported.

Raising the issue of the anti-Pakistan bill that aims to penalise and sanction different countries, Pakistan Peoples Party parliamentary leader in Senate and chairperson of the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs Senator Sherry Rehman said Pakistan was faced with a moment of serious peril after the hasty pullout of US forces from Afghanistan.

Referring to the Afghanistan Counterterrorism, Oversight, and Accountability bill moved by 22 Republican senators, Senator Rehman regretted the US left Afghanistan under a deal that it had directly made with the Taliban yet it was pressing Pakistan to take responsibility for whatever was happening in Afghanistan.

“What is happening to Pakistan is actually worse than what has happened before,” she remarked, the report said.

Mentioning that the bill directly targeted Pakistan, she said it was not the US administration’s policy bill but it was important as it could gather critical mass. “It also points to a rise in toxic sentiments about Pakistan on the Hill, which many of us have worked very hard to reverse,” she observed.

Noting that a smart policy was about anticipating challenges and tackling them with unity and rational response, she said that at least a beginning should be made to address the threats. Section 202 of the bill directly mentions Pakistan and calls for an “assessment of support by state and non-state actors, including the government of Pakistan, for the Taliban between 2001 and 2020.”

“They are clearly saying that the government of Pakistan has supported the Taliban but it’s disappointing to see that no one has actually put it to the parliament for shaping collective responses nor dispelled disinformation that is damaging and painful,” she added.

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Afghan women stage protest in Kabul against Taliban policies

The protest was arranged in reaction to the closure of the ministry of women affairs from the Taliban’s cabinet and the closure of the ministry….reports Asian Lite News

After replacing the ministry of women affairs with the “vice and virtue ministry”, “scores of Afghan women gathered at the gates of the Ministry of Women Affairs building in Kabul on Sunday to protest against the policies of the Taliban and demanded the rights of education and work.

“Exclusion of women is the exclusion of humans”, “our freedom of speech is the conclusion of our potency” “education, work, and freedom are ways towards development” were the slogans chanted by the women, reported The Khaama Press News Agency.

Earlier, the Taliban replaced the sign at the entrance of the Ministry of Women Affairs building to Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.

This comes as the Taliban repeatedly has been claiming that women will be given the right to education, work. However, recently some of the caretaker cabinet officials have contradicted saying women cannot work together with men.

The protest was arranged in reaction to the closure of the ministry of women affairs from the Taliban’s cabinet and the closure of the ministry.

The protestors said that freedom and equity are their rights and they have to be provided with, reported The Khaama Press News Agency.

The “vice and virtue ministry,” was known for suppressing women’s rights during the previous period of Taliban rule two decades ago. The move is adding to concerns that women’s rights will be restricted again.

Meanwhile, a number of women’s rights activists said the removal of the women’s ministry is against the commitment of the Taliban regarding women’s right to work.

“Directly depriving the women and girls of education and work means the Taliban in no way is going to tolerate women and their presence,” said former MP Shukria Barakzai.

“Limiting the rights of the women of Afghanistan and marginalizing them, in fact, does not lead to a new Afghanistan with a better situation,” said Mariam Maroof Arvin, a women’s rights activist. (ANI)

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KABULY DIARY By Amjad Ayub Mirza

Now the Taliban have ordered Afghans living in an abandoned military compound to leave their houses and make way for the group’s fighters to move in…reports Amjad Ayub Mirza

As missiles came raining down on Kabul during the early afternoon of September 16, it sent a disturbing message across the world that not all jihadis are on the same page when it comes to establishing an Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan.

At least five missiles were said to have landed near the Kabul power plant which shows that the objective of the strike was to throw the capital city into darkness by disrupting the power and electricity supply.

Now the Taliban have ordered Afghans living in an abandoned military compound to leave their houses and make way for the group’s fighters to move in. There are 2,500 families that are feared to be evicted in the coming days. However, after protests the Taliban are said to have abandoned the plans temporarily.

The video of acting Deputy Prime Minster Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar that surfaced on the same day the missile attack took place, has for a moment laid to rest rumours that he had been fatally wounded after a gun fight broke out between the Doha group, which had facilitated the talks between the US, Taliban, and the Haqqani network, which Pakistan had helped to get a large share in the Taliban ad hoc government. Seventeen out of 33 ministerial portfolios have gone to the Haqqani.

The missile attack on Kabul comes at a time when the Taliban were holding their first cabinet meeting. The meeting fell apart after heated arguments between several ministers debating among themselves the economic and political catastrophe that the Taliban find themselves facing.

On one hand, the IMF and World Bank have brought all aid to Afghanistan to a halt. To add insult to injury, the US government froze Afghan assets which amount to almost $9 billion raising qualms regarding the Taliban’s ability to manage the economy in the not so distant future.

On the other hand, doubts have risen about the capability of the Taliban to consolidate its rule over Afghanistan. The fighters in the north in Panjshir, led by Ahmad Massoud and former First Vice President Amrullah Saleh, refuse to budge and continue to put up a fierce resistance despite the alleged military assistance provided to the Taliban by neighbouring Pakistan.

The Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) has also posed a serious threat to the claims of stability made by the ad-hoc government of Taliban in Kabul. The Khorasan had conducted at least two deadly attacks last month on the Kabul airport which resulted in the deaths of 13 US marines and more than 200 Afghans.

Pakistan has allegedly been accused by the Doha group of meddling in the internal affairs of Afghanistan to the detriment of the political wing of the terrorist organisation based in Doha.

The sudden dash to Kabul by the Pakistani chief of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt Gen Faiz Hameed is said to have played an instrumental role in forming the ad hoc Taliban government. This, it is believed to have divided the Taliban into at least three groups. The Taliban, the Haqqani and those who support Baradar.

Baradar’s sudden disappearance and then reappearing six days later and releasing a pre-recorded video statement claiming that he fine and reading from a piece of paper showed him visibly distressed. This has raised questions regarding him being forced to make an appearance on video.

In recent days, the fighters in Panjshir have also shown resilience and have reportedly been attacking the Taliban in the province of Badakhshan. Moreover, it is reported that Massoud has announced that soon they will declare a parallel Afghan government. All these pointers indicate that Taliban rule over Kabul is going to be anything but stable.

Another factor to be paid attention to is the resilience with which the Afghan women have taken to the streets to oppose the Taliban. From Kabul to Kandahar and Herat scores of Afghan women have been taking out processions while chanting slogans such as “down with the Taliban” and “death to Pakistan”.

As the Taliban struggle to subdue internal fighting, gain control over a disgruntled civil society and bring anti-Taliban resistance forces in Panjshir to task one thing is now become clear that the Taliban are finally on the receiving end of the wrath of the wider Afghan society.

From being an aggressor and bombarding civilian government of former President Ashraf Ghani in Kabul to being rocket fired upon, the Taliban are now facing a multiple enemies and from various sections of society, something they should get used to very quickly.

(Amjad Ayub Mirza is an author and a human rights activist from Mirpur in Pakistan occupied Kashmir. He currently lives in exile in the UK. All views expressed are personal.)

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