You cannot whitewash the truth. The truth is out in the open for all humanity to see. Taliban is the face of Islamic terrorism. It is an Islamic terrorist organization.
The legitimizing of the Taliban by certain global nations and organizations like the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will be the spark that will burn down the idea of democracy around the world.
The UNSD resolution, the first to be adopted after the Taliban’s capture of Kabul on August 15, stated that the territory of Afghanistan is not to be used to threaten any country or shelter terrorists and that the international community expects the Taliban to adhere to the commitments they made regarding the safe and orderly departure of Afghans and all foreign nationals from the country.
Interestingly, the UNSC resolution named the Taliban five times but did not condemn the grouping. Rather, it noted the Taliban’s commitments about “the safe, secure, and orderly departure of Afghans and all foreign nationals from Afghanistan.
The resolution also stressed the importance of maintaining humanitarian access, upholding human rights, reaching an inclusive political settlement, and combating terrorism. It did not, however, spell out any provision to punish the Taliban if they failed to allow such departures or follow the commitments.
The hypocrisy of the UNSC is the simple fact that it wants the Taliban to adhere to the commitments they made regarding the safe and orderly departure of Afghans from Afghanistan. Afghanistan belongs to the people of Afghanistan. UNSC is pushing millions of Afghanis to live a life of a refugee in another country and not their own by giving in to the demands of legitimizing a terror organization like the Taliban.
Afghanistan belongs to the people of Afghanistan, not terrorists.
Terrorists all over the world will be emboldened by this utter stupidity and cowardice of countries like the US and the UK, and the lack of spine showed by UNSC.
Global nations have sealed the fate of a horrific future for the people of Afghanistan and eventually for people around the Indian sub-continent.
For India, the Taliban in Afghanistan is a warning sign. As a nation, we need to be alert. As reported in The Daily Guardian, the Intelligence agencies have revealed that five terrorist groups have infiltrated into Jammu and Kashmir in the last few days; within the last 10 days, agencies have issued eight alerts.
According to the intelligence agency, five terrorist groups have infiltrated into the region of Jammu and Kashmir in the last few days, and it is reported that they might be involved in the planning of doing “something big” in the area. The agency also informed that there are about 25 to 30 such terrorists who are being investigated. Apart from this, the security forces and agencies are concerned about the disappearance of 55 youths from the Jammu and Kashmir region. It is reported that these people who have disappeared in the last few months are associated with terrorist organizations.
As per the intelligence agency, more than 250 terrorists are residing in the camps near the Line of Control (LoC). Agencies said that they are on alert and are ready to deal with the situation. The trend has changed in the last one month—in the Valley which used to be comparatively peaceful in the last few years, incidents of violence have increased in the previous one month. This is also being linked to the establishment of Taliban rule in Afghanistan.
The rise of the Taliban will see the rise of terrorism in the Indian subcontinent and around the world. The Taliban is a victor against a powerful nation like the United States.
In the first six months of 2021, the Taliban turned Afghanistan into a hell hole of violence. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) report reveals shocking data that 56 percent of all civilians casualties – death and injuries in Afghanistan, 2978 is the horrific number of casualties.
AIHRC reports show that in 1,594 different security incidents, a total of 5,321 civilians have been killed or injured in the first six months of 2021.
Among these civilian casualties, 1677 were killed, and 3,644 are injured.
Important to note that the total number of civilian casualties in the first six months of 2020 was 2,957, including 1,213 killed and 1,744 injured.
A comparison of the above-mentioned figures shows that civilian casualties have increased by 80 percent in the first six months of 2021 compared with the first six months of 2020.
AIHRC report highlighted, “The Taliban is responsible for 2,978 civilian casualties (917 killed, and 2,061 injured) in the first six months of 2021. The war tactics by the Taliban include the use of IEDs, rocket fires, target killing, and ground battles. The number of civilian casualties by the Taliban in the first six months of 2021 compared with the same period in the previous year has been doubled. The Taliban was responsible for 1,438 civilian casualties (542 killed, and 896 injured) in the first six months of 2020.”
The number of women civilian casualties in Afghanistan in the first six months of 2021 is 504 in total which includes 154 killed, and 350 injured.
The number of women civilian casualties in the first six months of 2020 was 297 in total which included 126 killed, and 171 injured.
There has been a 69 percent rise in women civilian casualties in the first six months of 2021 in comparison with the first six months of 2020.
In the first half of 2021, as a result of military approaches of the warring parties in the country 373 children were killed, and 1,083 others were injured.
The number of child casualties in the first six months of 2020 was 630 (225 killed, and 405 injured).
The comparison of the above figures clearly shows that war principles and International Humanitarian Law have been violated.
The number of child casualties increased by 131% in the first six months of 2021 compared to the first six months of 2020.
Afghan women have suffered tremendously in Afghanistan’s violent conflicts and have paid a heavy price.
After the fall of the Taliban government, women fought hard to gain equality and secure their basic human rights. They have made great progress on this path and, while they desperately long for peace, they are now fearful that women’s human rights could be a collateral casualty in the acceptance of Taliban rule in Afghanistan.
Girls’ school attendance in the aftermath of the Taliban regime spiked as never before. Women are represented in almost every sector of society. More than any other time in the history of Afghanistan, Afghan women are aware of their rights for which they have fought hard and they are determined to preserve and protect them. They also defend their rights, for example by reporting cases of domestic violence in record numbers.
In Afghanistan, the right to life of women is violated in different forms. In addition to deaths as a result of suicide bombings and aerial attacks, and many victims of domestic violence each year, women are deprived of their right to life in extrajudicial killings and targeted attacks against them. With the Taliban now controlling Afghanistan, the plight of women is expected to further deteriorate.
Globally, women have long been at the frontlines of conflict and crisis, pioneering ways to end the conflict, participating in peace, and advocating for the rights of women and girls in agreement seeking to end violent conflict. Yet often, women’s expertise and priorities are excluded from formal ceasefire agreements and implementation mechanisms. In Afghanistan, women continue to risk their lives every day in the name of peace. 2020 marked the highest number of women killed since the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan began systematic documentation in 2009.
In her briefing on August 6, 2021, to the United Nations Security Council, Shahrazad Akbar, Chairperson, AIHRC, expressed, “My family and I sought refugee in Pakistan when I was a child escaping conflict and Taliban’s repressive regime. 24 or so years later, millions of Afghans are looking for a way out of Afghanistan as they do not see a future here. We cannot wait and watch the history repeating itself.”
She further told the UNSC, “One major, deeply concerning example is the rights of women and girls in areas captured by the Taliban. Women’s access to education, to markets, to basic health services, is limited and shrinking. Their basic human rights were denied and repressed. Afghan women across Afghanistan are either reliving the nightmare of Taliban area or live in the fear and trauma of reliving it soon if the tide doesn’t turn and we don’t have an opportunity at negotiations and meaningful participation in them.”
“I am mourning another attack on Afghanistan’s youth. Dawa Khan Mena Pal, a government official working on communications and a man known for his poetry, humor, and generosity, was shot in broad daylight in Kabul today. His terror sent a chilling reminder to all civilian government employees as well as journalists and human rights defenders, about the frequency of targeted killings in the midst of raging war. It is also a brutal reminder of the Taliban’s refusal to acknowledge government employees as civilians and continue to target and kill them in Kabul, Kandahar, Ghazni, and across Afghanistan. This ongoing storm of atrocities has already cost lives and has spread widespread terror and uncertainty, taking us further away from the possibility of peace,” she expressed in anguish at the UNSC briefing.
The belief that the Taliban will overnight transform into a civilized and less radical organization because it is in government is foolhardy. Their foundation is Islamic terrorism. Their grooming is Islamic terrorism. Therefore, their governance will be driven through the lens of Islamic terrorism.
It is shocking, to say the least, that certain sections in the global political arena and media have resorted to painting the Taliban as freedom fighters. They are not freedom fighters, they have only trampled upon the rights of freedom of the people of Afghanistan that are opposed to their rule.
I reiterate, make no mistake, the Taliban is an Islamic terror organization and its intent is to control its territories with Islamic rule and spread Islamic terrorism globally. It is the main perpetrator of terrorism globally.
The UNSC resolution on ‘Taliban’ is a stab to the heart of the people of Afghanistan
