The Taliban government in Afghanistan was overthrown by the United States in 2001. In the past two decades, the Taliban has never been closer to claiming rule over the war-torn country than now as the US-led foreign forces leave the country.
The Taliban is rapidly gaining ground. According to estimates, the outfit controls about three-fifths of the country. The Taliban have captured Kandahar and Herat in the last week. It is less than 150 kilometers from Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. NATO says the Taliban are stronger than they have ever been since their downfall in 2001. Currently, it has around 85,000 fighters.
Afghanistan is on the verge of a full-scale civil war between the Taliban and the democratically elected government led by President Ashraf Ghani. Over the course of its lifetime, the conflict has already claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced millions more. The US intelligence community fears that the Taliban could overthrow the government within a matter of months, turning Afghanistan into an Islamic state.
Taliban – who are they?
‘Taliban’ is a Pashto word that means ‘students’ in English. In the early 1990s, the Taliban emerged as an Islamist movement and its origins can be traced to northern Pakistan. Taliban origins can be traced to the late 1970s, when thousands of Afghan mercenaries were trained in Pakistan to battle the erstwhile Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The Taliban was founded by Mulla Mohammed Omar, one of these fighters. These mujahideen fighters were backed by the US and forced the USSR to withdraw from Afghanistan.
During the rise of the Taliban, the USSR had withdrawn from Afghanistan and Mujahideen warlords ruled the country. The Taliban quickly gained territory from the southwest of Afghanistan and captured Kabul in 1996, ousting the Afghan Mujahideen government in the process. The Taliban refer to themselves as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA).
The Afghan people had grown tired of the Mujahideen warlords infighting and corruption strangling the common man. Due to the successful curbing of corruption and crime, the Taliban was welcomed and grew in popularity. This created a conducive environment for economic growth. Taliban rule, however, introduced a strict interpretation of Sharia law that included punishments such as public executions and amputations. Burqas were made compulsory for women and beards were made compulsory for men. Entertainment in Afghanistan was banned, and girls were forbidden to attend school.
After the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the Taliban regime collapsed in the US. The US accused the Taliban of sheltering Osama Bin Laden and the outfit Al-Qaeda, who were identified as the culprits behind the terror attack. In December 2001, the US removed the Taliban from power in Afghanistan in less than two months. Senior Talibani leaders escaped capture and the group became an insurgent outfit that targeted the Afghan government and civilians, as well as US-led foreign troops on peacekeeping missions.
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Why do the Taliban want to seize Afghanistan?
Taliban leaders, including Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada, claim to be restoring peace and security to their predominantly Pashtun cadres and followers, simultaneously enforcing a strict interpretation of Islamic law or Sharia.
The Taliban of 2021 pledged to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a hub for terrorism against the West. After two years of talks, the US and Taliban reached a peace agreement in February 2020. As the US commits to a withdrawal, the Taliban have promised not to attack its troops or allow al-Qaeda to take shelter in Afghanistan. The Taliban’s recognition abroad was limited to only three countries the last time it was in power, but it is already establishing diplomatic relations through senior leaders based in Doha, Qatar.
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