Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: After 20 years of fierce fighting, it is time for the Taliban to take a break. Ensconced safely in Kabul, with no one to attack them now—on the contrary, soldiers surrendered, policemen vanished, and hapless citizens fled to leave Afghanistan—they enjoyed themselves on Monday with rides at an amusement park, with guns slinging from their shoulders, and drove battery-run cars like frolicking children.
They may be trying an image-makeover—from an uncouth, ragtag bunch of Islamist fighters, to a disciplined ruling militia. Although some of them did shoot at women for not wearing the burqa properly, the fighters attempted to showcase that they were a different generation than the one reared by their founder, Mullah Muhammad Umar in the 1990s and that his successor, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar—now tipped to be the next President of Afghanistan—is a ‘progressive’ man.
With these objectives, the Taliban on Tuesday announced an “amnesty” for citizens across Afghanistan. They even urged women to join the government, in what has been seen as attempts to calm nerves across a nervous capital city of Kabul that only on Monday witnessed unprecedented chaos at the Hamid Karzai International Airport, crowded by panicked people trying to flee the country.
These announcements came via the first official comments from Enamullah Samangani, a member of the militia’s “Cultural Commission”.
While there were no major reports of abuses or fighting in Kabul as of now, many residents stayed home, fearful after the insurgents’ takeover saw prisons emptied and armories looted, media reports said.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan does not want women to be victims,” Samangani said, adding, “They should be in government structure according to the Shariah Law.”
“The government’s structure is not fully clear as yet, but based on our experience, there should be a fully Islamic leadership and all sides should join.”
Meanwhile, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, thousands of Afghans were wounded in the recent fighting. The Afghan security forces surrendered without a fight. The last American troops had planned to withdraw at the end of August.
“The world is following events in Afghanistan with a heavy heart and deep disquiet about what lies ahead,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
Facing all-around condemnation for the ‘collapse’ in Afghanistan, US President Joe Biden on Monday said he stood “squarely behind” his decision to withdraw American forces and acknowledged the “gut-wrenching” images unfolding in Kabul.
Biden said he faced a choice between honoring a previously negotiated withdrawal agreement or sending thousands of more troops back to begin the third decade of war.
“After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw US forces,” he said in a televised address from the White House.