Taliban: A House of Cards

29 November, 2001

By

Dr. S. Farooq Hasnat

A dramatic change in the Afghan situation let the regional countries grasping for explanations and even the coalition’s estimates of the Taliban military capacity seemed over-estimated – they just fell like a house of cards and vanished in thin air. Their retreat from their “strong holds”, was with an astonishing speed and the images of surrender from Konduz, along with their armor as well as the insensitive behavior in which they laid down their arms, tells it all. It is believed that there are more than 20,000 Taliban fighters and their supporters in the Pashtoon majority city in the North.

There might not be a similar instance where a fighting force submitted in a manner that it was armed to the teeth - with their tanks, jeeps and rocket launchers and least of all the smiling faces. To make it worse, the Taliban militia left behind their foreign supporters with criminal negligence, knowing well that there would be revenge and a blood bath by the rag-tag warlords of the Northern Alliance. Taliban deputy defence minister Mulla Fazal Akhund is quoted to have said on November 22nd that he had held negotiations with General Rashid Dostum, an Uzbuk commander, in Mazar-I-Sharif and that he would give himself up. Convincingly, he went on to say that “there will be peace and nothing will happen.” The irony is that those who operated under the name of Islam could not bring harmony and tranquility for the weaker sections of the society whom they ruled with an iron hand for more than five years, but were quick to surrender in front of a stronger force.

It is true and much advertised that when the Taliban emerged on the Afghan scene, there was a total chaos in the country and that the warlords were engaged in never ending activities of brutality, rape and other gross violations of human rights. It is also on record that the minority Tajiks usurped the power in Kabul and refused to accommodate other ethnic minorities, and even the majority Pashtuns were left out, in sharing the management of the territory. But, at the same instance, those who supported the Taliban militia expected a much more sane and balanced behaviour from the newly arrived. The Taliban leadership under semi educated Mullah Umar failed on all accounts. The militia fell short of understanding certain hard realities of statecraft. Their behavior as well towards the regional and the world community was beyond any logical explanations. After all Islamic history is full of the science of statecraft, diplomatic maneuvering and dealings with its adversaries. There was little understanding of the genuine Islamic norms and no attempt was made to learn from the religious scholars in other communities or for that matter from within their own immediate surroundings. General Kamal Matinuddin quotes Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Chief of the Jamaat-i-Islami in his book “The Taliban Phenomenon”, to have expressed his disappointment in the credentials of the Taliban leadership. The Jamaat chief is reported to have remarked about the Madaris, from where the Taliban leadership received their basic learning that “education was not being properly taught as the teachers were uneducated maulvis.”

Similarly, no lesson was learnt from the welfare concept of an Islamic State and not a glimpse is evident from the Taliban to base their society on the socio-economic justice. On the contrary, all actions of the Taliban went in the opposite direction. Even those agencies of the United Nations and World Community that made efforts to help the vulnerable and impoverished Afghan population were pushed away with unexplainable vengeance. Osama bin Laden, an honoured guest of the Taliban was a multi-billionaire, but did not spend any of his wealth to lessen the miseries of the Afghan poor.

Instead, the Taliban rulers busied themselves in trivial acts, hitting hard at the private lives and habits of those who were forced to live under their thumb. A glaring example is that of several decrees that the Taliban passed when they took over in Kabul in 1996. To quote just a few - in December of the same year, the people of Afghanistan were forbidden to do the following: (1) To prevent keeping pigeons and playing with birds: Within ten days this habit/hobby should stop. After ten days this should be monitored and the pigeons and other playing birds should be killed. (2) To prevent kite-flying: The kite shops in the city should be abolished. (3) To prevent the British and American hairstyle: People with long hair should be arrested and taken to the Religious Police department to shave their hair. The criminal has to pay the barber. (4) To prevent beard shaving and its cutting: After one and a half months if anyone observed who has shaved and/or cut his beard, they should be arrested and imprisoned until their beard gets bushy (One wonders from where the “cutting” part comes from; maybe it’s the Sikh religion that influenced the Taliban). Still further, under the Taliban, the women were not permitted to work but were readily allowed to beg on the streets of Kabul.

Foreign volunteers from various nationalities came to Afghanistan, convinced by the Taliban leadership that their hosts are fighting a jihad against the evil forces. In the case of the Pakistanis, the leaders of “Talibinized” religious gangs are as guilty as the Taliban militia. These semi educated elements who have no knowledge of the spirit of Islam are directly responsible for the slaughter of thousands of youth – in many cases their parents were not even aware of the real intensions of those who taught them at the madrassas. The principal violator in this tragedy has been the Amir of Tehrik-I-Nifaz-Shariat (TNSM), Maulana Sufi Muhammad who is instrumental in leaving behind (all in the name of fighting a Jihad against the United States) more than eight thousand young people in Afghanistan, while he returned to Pakistan, gasping for his life. He was arrested and jailed for three years by the Pakistani authorities. What is required is a murder charge against the Maulana as according to one report hundreds of those abandoned were killed in Mazar-I-Sharif, while unknown large number of innocent youth is trapped in the besieged Kunduz. Already the TNSM has admitted that more than three thousand of their “brain-washed” young boys are missing and they have no information whether they are dead or imprisoned. The so called Jihadi group is now pleading the “infidel” Northern Alliance to release those who were left behind on the war fronts in Afghanistan. A 13-member delegation is in the process of visiting Afghanistan to impress upon the Northern Alliance their “gravest gaffe”. Interestingly, the appeal is not being made in the name of Islam but on reciprocal nationalist considerations. Haji Roohullah, a representative of the TNSM is reported to have said that his delegation would impress upon the Afghan conquering leaders that they should consider that Pakistan has been a “place of refugee for over two decades”. He further said, “We will impress upon the leaders to show the same magnanimity and large-heartedness.” One just wonders that where has the big talk of Jihad gone and still further whether the Pakistani military regime would take firm measures against those who are responsible for the useless murders of the Pakistani youth. These reckless acts not only are responsible for the loss of precious lives but it also brought a bad name to the country – a damage that would take a horrendous task and decades of hard work to be erased.

Their supporters in Pakistan are as much ignorant as their benefactors. Most of the students in these Madrassas are from the poorest of the poor communities and their main attraction is to get free food and clothing from these institutions. There are some who are attracted towards these self styled religious groups as they provide them with much needed identity, which they otherwise cannot achieve in a corrupt and callous socio-economic setup of Pakistan. Thus, left in lurch by the society, they become an easy prey to the whimsical desires of the Maulvies. The respective governments in Pakistan should have had enough character and courage to accept at least some responsibility for the ubiquitous massacre of the Pakistani youth and the tragedy of Afghanistan bungle, on at least four accounts.


One, the establishment in Islamabad failed to provide basic facilities for the less privileged families and as a consequence they were lured in by the vested interests. While the ruling elite lives pompous lives for themselves and their kin, mostly through plundering the assets of the country.


Secondly, they turned their faces on the other side when the so-called Jihadi groups started to send their recruits to take part in the Afghan civil war. The Islamabad establishment cannot exonerate itself by saying that the Pakistanis crossed the border without proper documents or permission. If they did so, that by itself is a failure of the authorities to perform their assigned duties.


Thirdly, no other than the Pakistani establishment knew that a gross violation of human rights in Afghanistan existed and no attempt was made to discourage that. An explanation that Afghanistan is a sovereign country and thereby we would not interfere would not stand, as the world knows that Pakistan could, if it wanted to, exercise sufficient leverage on the Kabul rulers. A regular parade of the Taliban officials in the five long years, to Islamabad and vise versa would negate all the excuses.


Fourthly, Pakistan continued its diplomatic links with the Taliban regime, even after the fall of Kabul, falsifying its previous stance that it recognizes governments that control the Afghan capital. It was at the American scolding that the Embassy in Islamabad was closed.

In these circumstances it was but natural that Pakistan became a villain in the Afghanistan episode, not only in the perception of the Afghan people but also for the International Community.