Taliban’s Mismatch between Words and Actions

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Sept 10: Demonstrating mismatch between its words and actions, the Taliban in Afghanistan has continued the repressive measures against women, restricted free speech by beating journalists covering anti-Taliban protests, and has kept ignoring the international concerns about allowing its soil for terror activities even as Pakistan renewed its appeal to the world to “help Afghanistan.”

Known for helping the Taliban to prosper in Pakistan after it was driven out of Afghanistan by the United States forces following the 9/11 attack, Pakistan, which also influenced the Taliban to form an “interim government” with several internationally acclaimed terrorists on board, is running a campaign for the world assistance to rehabilitate the “militant Afghanistan.” While India continued to express concern that Afghan soil should not be allowed to be used for terrorism, Pakistan desired the militants in the neighbouring country thrived better with its foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Friday that it was the “collective responsibility of the international community” to help Afghanistan “to avert a humanitarian crisis.”

Qureshi’s statement come after the United Nations Development Programme said the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan had put 20 years of steady economic gains at risk pointing out that Afghanistan was teetering on the brink of “universal poverty” which could become a reality in the middle of next year unless urgent efforts were made to bolster local communities and their economies.

The UN, however, has also seen the ugly face the Taliban. The U.N. special envoy for Afghanistan Deborah Lyons has warned that the Taliban have already “visibly welcomed and sheltered” Al-Qaeda members and Islamic State extremists remain active “and could gain strength.” She told the UN Security Council would have to decide how to engage with many of the 33 members of the Taliban government who are on the UN sanctions blacklist, including the prime minister, the two deputy prime ministers and the foreign minister.

Britain too has expressed concern over spread of terrorism in the world with the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. “It would provide a morale boost to extremists plotting attacks elsewhere, and could again give them a base to operate as they did in the run-up to 9/11,” the head of Britain’s MI5 domestic spy service said on Friday. Ken McCallum, director general of the Security Service, best known by the initials for Military Intelligence Section 5, told the BBC the threat to Britain from terrorism was “a real and enduring thing”.

Britain last faced major attacks in 2017, when a bomber struck a concert in Manchester and knife-wielding men attacked two bridges in London. In the four years since, police and intelligence services had disrupted 31 late-stage plots to attack Britain, McCallum said. Such militants would be inspired by the Taliban success.

The U.N. special envoy also urged the world to unite to prevent the collapse of the Afghan economy, to address fears that the Taliban’s Islamic state may spread to its neighbours, and to fight terrorism.  But she said the worsening humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan must be addressed now, while warning there is another “looming crisis” caused by the freezing of billions of dollars in Afghan assets.

She also claimed that the Afghan staff of the UN were being increasingly subjected to harassment and intimidation since the Taliban came to power. She told the Security Council that U.N. premises had largely been respected, although there were some exceptions. “We are … increasingly worried by the growing number of incidents of harassment and intimidation against our national staff. We will continue to do everything possible to support our staff and keep them from harm’s way,” she said.

“The U.N. cannot conduct its work – work that is so essential to the Afghan people – if its personnel are subjected to intimidation, fear for their lives, and cannot move freely,” Lyons said on Thursday.

Showing its ugly face, the Taliban, which earlier claimed that the present one was different from the Taliban of 1990’s, some Taliban leaders made very offensive remarks against women on Friday. “Women can’t be ministers, they should give birth,” a Taliban spokesperson said in an interview, reinforcing the perception that the hardline group’s claims of a new improved version since its brutal rule in Afghanistan in the 1990s are false. The comments by Taliban spokesperson Sayed Zekrullah Hashimi have been widely shared on social media. “A woman can’t be a minister, it is like you put something on her neck that she can’t carry. It is not necessary for women to be in the cabinet – they should give birth. Women protesters can’t represent all women in Afghanistan,” Hashimi said.

“We do not consider women as half of the society. What kind of half? The half itself is misdefined here. The half means here that you keep them in the cabinet and nothing more. And if you violate her rights, not an issue. Over the last 20 years, whatever was said by this media, the US, and its puppet government in Afghanistan, was it anything but prostitution in offices?” Hashimi said continuing with his offensive remarks against women.

You can’t accuse all women of prostitution, the interviewer interjected. “I do not mean all Afghan women. The four women protesting in the streets, they do not represent the women of Afghanistan. The women of Afghanistan are those who give birth to the people of Afghanistan, educates them on Islamic ethics,” said the spokesperson.

India’s concern of the Afghan soil being misused for terror activities, was also shared by the US which said the interim Taliban government did not reflect what the international community and the United States hoped to see. The Biden Administration said on Thursday said “We have spoken about our reaction to the initial caretaker government. You have heard us say that the lack of inclusivity, the track records, the backgrounds of some of the individuals involved, are a cause for concern. It certainly does not reflect what the international community and what, as a part of that, the United States hoped to see,” State Department Spokesperson Ned Price told reporters at his press conference.

“Now, we note this is an initial caretaker government. We note that some of these positions remain unfulfilled. So what will be important to us is not only the composition of any future government of Afghanistan…again, we will look to see to it that it is inclusive, to see to it that it is representative of the people that the Taliban purport to represent,” he said.

Terming the situation in Afghanistan as “very fragile,” India has said it was important that the Taliban adhere to its commitment to not allow the use of the Afghan soil for terrorism, including from terror groups designated under Security Council resolution 1267 that lists Pakistan-based outfits Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.

India’s Permanent Representative to the U.N. Ambassador T. S. Tirumurti said at the U.N. Security Council Debate on Afghanistan on Thursday that as Afghanistan’s neighbour, India was privileged to preside over the adoption of a substantial and forward-looking product of the Council during its presidency of the 15-nation U.N. body last month.

The resolution on Afghanistan “took into account some of our collective concerns, in particular on terrorism, where it has noted the commitment of the Taliban not to allow the use of the Afghan soil for terrorism, including from terrorists and terrorist groups designated under Resolution 1267.

The Security Council resolution has “underlined that Afghan territory should not be used to threaten or attack any country or to shelter or train terrorists, or to plan or to finance terrorist acts. As witnessed from the deplorable terrorist attack at Kabul Airport last month, terrorism continues to pose a serious threat to Afghanistan. It is therefore important that commitments made in this regard are respected and adhered to,” Tirumurti said.

Pakistan, however, regretted that no one was coming forward to help Afghanistan when the country was facing a crisis situation. Qureshi said Pakistan despite its limited resources had send food and medicines by air and more such aids would be dispatched to Afghanistan via land routes. Qureshi made his comments ahead of the visit of his Spanish counterpart, José Manuel Albares, who was expected to arrive in the capital, Islamabad, later Friday, for talks on Afghanistan.

Qureshi said a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan wouldn’t be anyone’s interest — in the region or in the world. Pakistan wants the international community to unfreeze Afghanistan’s assets to enable Kabul use its own money to avert a worsening humanitarian crisis.

The UN development agency agreed with Pakistan’s assessment of humanitarian crisis facing Afghanistan which, it said, was teetering on the brink of “universal poverty” that could become a reality in the middle of next year unless urgent efforts were made to bolster local communities and their economies.

The U.N. Development Programme outlined four scenarios for Afghanistan following the Taliban’s Aug. 15 assumption of power that predict the country’s GDP will decline between 3.6% and 13.2% in the next fiscal year starting in June 2022, depending on the intensity of the crisis and how much the world engages with the Taliban. That is in sharp contrast to the expected 4% growth in GDP before the fall of the government.

While on Thursday, in a first such large-scale departure since U.S. forces completed their frantic withdrawal over a week ago, an estimated 200 foreigners, including Americans, left Afghanistan on a commercial flight out of Kabul on Thursday with the cooperation of the Taliban. Although the White House praised the Taliban for their “businesslike” and “professional” cooperation in facilitating the departure of American citizens and lawful permanent residents on charter flights, the U.S., however, said that the interim Taliban government does not reflect what the international community and the United States hoped to see.

Spain’s Foreign Minister is in Islamabad for talks with Pakistani officials aimed at easing the transit of Afghan people who worked with Spain before Afghanistan’s fall into the hands of the Taliban. Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares is scheduled to hold meetings with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan and his counterpart Qureshi, among other officials.

In a video released by the Spanish ministry,  Albares said the goal was to hold talks “with one of the main key players in the region” and find ways to “leave no one behind.” The Minister said he would give assurances to the Pakistani government that Spain’s embassy would deal fast with Afghans who worked for the country in order for them not to become a burden for Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) CEO Hamid Shinwari on Friday asked Cricket Australia (CA) to reconsider its decision not to host its men’s team for a Test in November, saying such a move would only isolate the strife-torn country.

Soon after forming an interim government, the Taliban banned women from playing cricket or any others sports, casting doubts over Afghanistan men’s team Test status.

As per ICC rules, all Test playing nations must have a women’s team as well.

“We ask Cricket Australia and the whole cricketing world to keep the door open for us, walk with us, do not isolate us and avoid penalising us for our cultural and religious environment,” Shinwari said.

His statement comes after the Australia captain Tim Paine said the chances of their first ever test against Afghanistan going ahead are “not looking good” with the Taliban unwilling to let women play cricket and questioned why the game’s governing body had remained quiet on the issue.

“I don’t think we want to be associated with countries that are taking things or opportunities off literally half of their population.”

Paine said he could not see how Afghanistan can be allowed to play in an ICC event under the current circumstances. “But as yet we’ve heard nothing from the ICC, which I think is fascinating given there is a T20 World Cup in a month’s time and at the moment Afghanistan are in that,” he said questioning ICC’s silence over the matter.

“It will be interesting to see what happens in that space. Does the team get kicked out of the World Cup? I imagine it will be impossible if teams are pulling out against playing against them and governments are not letting them travel to our shores, then how a team like that can be allowed to play in an ICC sanctioned event is going to be very, very hard to see.”