A Legacy of Excesses on All Sides
Afghanistan’s
modern destiny is marred by much internal political strife and blood-letting,
especially in the last four decades. Illegal interventions and invasions by foreign
powers- [the Soviet Union (1979-1989), and the United States (2001-2021) followed
by counter-mobilization by militant groups armed and aided by interested
foreign governments, and the consequent internecine warfare destabilized the
land for long years. The emergence of Taliban in the Afghan refugee camps of
Pakistan, and its militant extremism- blurring the line between political
resistance and support for indiscriminate and unrestrained violence in the name
of ideology/religion against hostile foreign powers as well as defenceless
civilians cannot be divorced from this complex political and regional backdrop-
including the lucrative profits from mass cultivation of, and trade in, opium
and other narcotic substances across borders with colluding elements in
Pakistan.
Domestically, when the Taliban was in power in the land during 1996-2001, its policies were starkly marked by denial of educational opportunities to girl children; curtailment of women’s rights; cruel and degrading treatment of minorities; institutionalization of vengeance in the form of medieval punishments on opponents and enemies of the regime- all in service of a narrow-minded, extremist and simplistic understanding of the Islamic Shari’ah, bringing disrepute to the very Faith they claimed to serve- with hardly any country in the world recognizing the Mullah Muhammad Omar regime in Kabul in those years.