Afghanistan is sliding into chaos. The Taliban are making major gains in their attempt to capture the country militarily. In the last seven days, nine of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals have fallen to the Taliban. Seven of these provincial capitals are in the non-Pashtun north, which was the base of the Northern Alliance, led by the “lion of Panjshir”, Ahmad Shah Masood, when the Taliban was in power in Kabul between 1996 and 2001. It was from the north that the Northern Alliance launched its attack on the Taliban, with American help, until the Taiban were dislodged. To pre-empt any such possibility in the future, the Taliban started their military campaign from the north this time, and are now in control of the majority of provinces there, including Badakhshan, once the seat of Masood. The capital of Badakhshan, Faizabad fell to the Taliban this week, in spite of valiant attempts by the security forces to repulse the attack, as they did not receive any air support or reinforcements. The largest city of the north, Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of the province of Balkh, too is under siege, and may fall to the Taliban any day. India has shut its consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif and brought home the consular staff, while asking all Indians in Afghanistan to leave the country before air traffic shuts down. If Mazar-i-Sharif falls, the whole of the north goes out of President Ashraf Ghani government’s control.
Meanwhile, a major humanitarian crisis is unfolding because of the Taliban violence. Afghanistan is already staring at a famine because of a severe drought that has afflicted the country. And now people are fleeing from the provinces that are coming under the control of the Taliban, who have gone on a rampage—as violent and vicious as ever—looting and murdering the common Afghan. According to the Unicef, 27 children were killed in the conflict in just three days this week and over 1,000 civilians lost their lives in the last few months. The displaced people are trying to flee to neighbouring countries, but are not being allowed entry. The Taliban are back to imposing their draconian rule in the provinces they have captured, including not allowing girls to go to school, or step outside their homes. Women and underage girls are being forced into marriages with Taliban terrorists or being turned into sex slaves. Healthcare has become scarce in the captured territories.
Afghanistan is also back to being a hotbed of terrorist groups. According to a 6 August statement by the United Nations on a UN Security Council briefing on Afghanistan, “Twenty groups—including Al-Qaida and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh)—are fighting alongside the Taliban against the Afghan population and security forces.” At the same briefing, the US representative, Ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis, made a significant statement: “The alarming rise in violence and civilian casualties caused by the ongoing Taliban military offensive further erodes the advances the Afghan people made in democracy and the rule of law over the last 20 years. The Taliban must hear from the international community that we will not accept a military takeover of Afghanistan or a return of the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate.”
Amid this, there is US President Joe Biden, who told White House reporters this week, “Afghan leaders have to come together… They’ve got to fight for themselves, fight for the nation.” He added that he did not regret the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan and that the US was still providing the Afghan forces with air support, food and salaries. Well, obviously that support is not enough at least in the North where Badakhshan’s capital Faizabad fell for lack of air support and reinforcements. The Taliban strategy is to stop all supplies and reinforcements from reaching the government forces in the urban areas, even as they themselves keep their supply lines open courtesy Pakistan. In such a scenario, can anyone “fight for themselves, fight for the nation”? Perhaps President Biden could be more sensitive to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, for his latest statements come across as out of touch with the reality on the ground. He surely has some responsibility towards the people who were promised a life minus the shadow of the medieval Taliban when the US forces entered Afghanistan 20 years ago. The Afghan people need his support—full support. This goes beyond limited air support, and includes putting pressure on the Taliban’s handler, Pakistan’s military establishment, to stop backing the terrorist force with men and materiel, and to exercise its influence on the Taliban to stop their military takeover of Afghanistan. In fact, this should be the focal point of the talks in Doha with the Taliban and other “stakeholders”. But is this topic even on the table? Instead, by making such cavalier statements, the US President is denting the morale of the Afghan people. The Afghans need support—both moral and material. They can do without words that make them lose their trust in his presidency.